Selfridge: The Life and Times of Harry Gordon Selfridge

I purchased this book hoping for some insight into the family life of the Selfridge's because family played such a large part in the PBS series. Such a book apparently does not exist. In fact, the TV series is nothing more than a "fairy tale version" as is pointed out in the Introduction. The book does not cover the lives of Harry's children in any detail. There is little mention of family interaction or of family life. It is known that his son Gordon Jr had a secret marriage and family that Harry Selfridge never knew about, but the book mentions none of this. The book lacks pictures or illustrative details regarding construction of his store which would have been helpful, as the architecture is discussed in some detail. The book is a quick read; it could have used a proof reader. All in all, rather a disappointment.Or, don't buy the book because the Wikipedia monograph provides much of the details in the book if not more, pictures too! - save your money.

for a cheap book it was ok, but you didn't learn much about the life of Selfridge and his family because it was stuffed with general information of markets and other people of the time. I would say more than 50% of the this small book was unrelated to Selfridge and his family.

lukewarm bio of Harry Gordon the creator of Selfridge department store still thriving in 21st century London.

Well written but very short. I was expecting a detailed biography.

Of course I knew that the show would be partially fictionalized, but I think the real story portrayed here is every bit as interesting.

Concise, well-written history of Mr. Selfridge. All of the highlights of his life explained quite well and the timeline flows very nicely

the writer has a tendency to go on tangents on historical events unrelated to Selfridge. Could have made better transitions or connections between other historical facts and the Selfridge storyn

Awful book. Save your money. Could have gotten the same information from Wikipedia without all the grammatical and spelling errors.

This is a self-published book, and full of interesting facts but reads a little like a GCSE essay. I still made it to the end and enjoyed the facts, the guy has done his research but it could be better written. Sorry! If you're looking for a super quick read on the facts though I definitely recommend.

Very interesting read on how things were back then

Good! only just started , but like a history lesson ! enjoying it! I wanted to know about the real Harry Selfridge ! Although loved the TV programme and can picture those characters in the book!! Going to enjoy this book

The layout of this book is quite ghastly and makes me disinclined to read it. Attention to detail just doesn't exist and therefore I'd find the veracity of the narrative questionable. I'm glad I bought a New and Used copy.

Printing of the board is not great, quite obviously a low resolution picture and text. Not quite what i was expecting. Very date and fact orientated, not so much a story as a timeline of factual events, some irrelevant.