Showing results by author "Mary Portas"

Young Mary Newton, born into a large Irish family in a small Watford semi, is always getting into trouble. When she isn’t choking back fits of giggles at Holy Communion or eating Chappie dog food for a bet, she’s accidentally setting fire to the local school. Mary is a trouble magnet. And unlike her brothers, somehow she always gets caught.... Britain in the 1970s is a world where R. White's lemonade is drunk in secret, curry comes in a box marked "Vesta", and beanz meanz Heinz.

By most people’s standards I would say I’ve had a pretty good career. I’ve reached the top of the ‘ladder’ and been lucky enough to have had a damned good life. But at what cost? At the cost of who I truly was. I played the business game for years, where the rules were set by men for men. I was tough and aggressive. I put in long hours, was competitive and resilient. But I suppressed my natural energy, sensitivity and instinct. I worked like this until I couldn’t any more. And then I changed....