I Shop, Therefore I Am

The '90s, Harvey Nicks – and Me

Preview

Failed to add items

Sorry, we are unable to add the item because your shopping cart is already at capacity.

Add to basket failed.

Please try again later

Add to wishlist failed.

Please try again later

Remove from wishlist failed.

Please try again later

Adding to library failed

Please try again

Follow podcast failed

Unfollow podcast failed

Get 30 days of Standard free

£5.99/mo after trial. Cancel monthly.

Try for £0.00

More purchase options

I Shop, Therefore I Am

By: Mary Portas

Narrated by: Mary Portas

Try for £0.00

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £14.15

Season's Savings | £0.99/mo for 3 months

£5.99/mo after 3 months - terms apply. Cancel monthly

A WATERSTONES BEST ENTERTAINMENT BOOK OF 2025

'A riot' - The Times
'Absolutely irresistible' - Joanna Lumley
'I couldn't put it down!' - Michelle Ogundehin
'Entertaining and energetic' - Stylist

Chronicling how she transformed Harvey Nichols from a fusty, old-fashioned store to a thriving, cutting-edge fashion brand, this entertaining and insightful book is suffused with the heady glamour and excess of 90s Cool Britannia.

Mary takes us behind the shop window – to the people who kept the show on the road and the early lessons that shaped her career. Told with her trademark wit, grit and candour, readers will see first-hand how, armed only with the blank canvas of a shop window and her own creativity, Mary created an era-defining global brand destination.

Mary PortasMary PortasCanongate Books

Art & Literature

Critic reviews

"Portas is a sort of tornado, unpredictable, funny and slightly terrifying, travelling at the speed of light. But in the quiet eye of this storm of a book lies great wisdom and truth. Absolutely irresistible" (JOANNA LUMLEY)

"Mary Portas’s memories of her years at Harvey Nichols draw me right back into that fascination. I Shop, Therefore I Am is so enthralling that I kept pausing in order to savour the next anecdote or clever, acidic observation . . . It’s worth riding alongside this observant semi-outsider, disrupter, inspirer"

"Entertaining and energetic, it zips along as a chronicle of hilarious exchanges and changing times. But more than that, it reminds us that business is a creative act, and shopping is a conscious decision. What we buy matters - perhaps more so now than ever before - which is an empowering reflection as we head into the gift-giving of Christmas"

"If anyone wants to know what it was like to be a woman working in the heart of London fashion retail in the '90s, Mary Portas's book provides an entertaining rollercoaster ride" (ALEXANDRA SHULMAN)

"The book, featuring cameos by Naomi Campbell; Diana, Princess of Wales and other outsize personalities, is a window into the creativity and collaboration that reimagined the formerly fusty department store as a fashion destination and has propelled Ms. Portas’s career ever since"

"A book with all the grit, gossip, beauty and brutality of retail. I couldn't put it down!" (MICHELLE OGUNDEHIN)

"From her 70s childhood to her time at Harvey Nichols, this memoir is funny, moving and wise in equal measures"

"A riot"

"Britain’s “Queen of Shops” takes us back three decades to her time stalking the floor at Harvey Nichols, at the height of its Ab Fab-inspired cachet"

"A window into the creativity and collaboration that reimagined the formerly fusty department store as a fashion destination and has propelled Ms. Portas’s career ever since."

Most relevant

It was all about the era I was in the rag trade it was interesting to reflect back
Loved it.