Just for a moment try to put every shopping trip you’ve ever made out of your head. Imagine a different world. Imagine that all the goods for sale are locked away in cabinets and to handle them, or even to examine them closely, you need to ask a shop assistant to open it up for you. Imagine that within seconds of entering a store a floorwalker approaches you and asks if you’re planning to buy something – then, when you say “I’m just looking,” rudely tells you to leave. Imagine any attempt to return faulty or unsuitable goods being met with ridicule, obstruction or a flat refusal to help you. Until the late 19th century people didn’t have to imagine that; it was reality. For anyone alive today a visit to the average store back then would convince you that they didn’t really want to sell you anything. The idea of customer service was an alien one. Stores sold things. If you wanted to buy them, fine. If you didn’t they weren’t really interested. Browsing was strongly discouraged and impulse buys were almost unheard of. Shopping was something you did when you had to. It certainly wasn’t something anyone enjoyed. Then, in the late 1880s, one man came along and changed all that. His name was Harry Gordon Selfridge and this is the story of his life.

The basis for the hit TV show Mr Selfridge In 1909, the largest department store in London's West End, designed and built from scratch, opened in Oxford Street in a glorious burst of publicity. The mastermind behind the façade was American retail genius Harry Gordon Selfridge: maverick businessman, risk-taker, dandy and one of the greatest showmen the retail world has ever known. His talents were to create the seduction of shopping, and as his success and fame grew, so did his glittering lifestyle: mansions, yachts, gambling, racehorses - and mistresses. From the glamour of Edwardian England, through the turmoil of the Great War and the heady excesses of the 1920s and beyond, Selfridges Department Store was 'a theatre with the curtain going up at 9 o'clock each morning'. Mr Selfridge reveals the captivating story of the rise and fall of the man who revolutionised the way we shop. 'Lively and entertaining' Sunday Telegraph 'Will change your view of shopping forever' Vogue 'Harry Selfridge revolutionised the way we shop ... fascinating' Daily Mail

This biography recounts the rise of the American retail magnate who would go on to open London’s famous Selfridge’s department stores. In early 1909, a new retail emporium readied for business on the “wrong end of Oxford Street” in London. The man behind it was an odd little American with a waxed mustache and frenetic nature. Harry Gordon Selfridge had spent the previous twenty-five years in Chicago honing his skills at the venerable Marshall Field and Company before unleashing his concept of retail theater in the United Kingdom. In Mr. Selfridge in Chicago, biographer Gayle Soucek follows the young man’s astounding rise through the ranks of the Windy City's merchant princes. From working as Mr. Field’s stock boy to his failed attempt to best his former boss as master of Chicago retail, Soucek follows Selfridge on his tumultuous journey—one that ultimately proves triumphant as he brings the American department store to the United Kingdom.

If you lived at Downton Abbey, you shopped at Selfridge’s. Harry Gordon Selfridge was a charismatic American who, in twenty-five years working at Marshall Field’s in Chicago, rose from lowly stockboy to a partner in the business which his visionary skills had helped to create. At the turn of the twentieth century he brought his own American dream to London’s Oxford Street where, in 1909, with a massive burst of publicity, Harry opened Selfridge’s, England’s first truly modern built-for-purpose department store. Designed to promote shopping as a sensual and pleasurable experience, six acres of floor space offered what he called “everything that enters into the affairs of daily life,” as well as thrilling new luxuries—from ice-cream soda to signature perfumes. This magical emporium also featured Otis elevators, a bank, a rooftop garden with an ice-skating rink, and a restaurant complete with orchestra—all catering to customers from Anna Pavlova to Noel Coward. The store was “a theatre, with the curtain going up at nine o’clock.” Yet the real drama happened off the shop floor, where Mr. Selfridge navigated an extravagant world of mistresses, opulent mansions, racehorses, and an insatiable addiction to gambling. While his gloriously iconic store still stands, the man himself would ultimately come crashing down. The true story that inspired the Masterpiece series on PBS • Mr. Selfridge is a co-production of ITV Studios and Masterpiece “Enthralling . . . [an] energetic and wonderfully detailed biography.”—London Evening Standard “Will change your view of shopping forever.”—Vogue (U.K.)

Named to honor the memory of Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge, the first fatality of powered flight, Selfridge Field has recorded many aviation milestones since its founding in 1917. As home of the famed First Pursuit Group, the airfield saw the feats of such notables as Charles Lindbergh, Jimmy Doolittle, and Curtis LeMay. Scores of young aviators who passed through Selfridge's gates later achieved the rank of general officer, earning the base the nickname "Home of the Generals." Selfridge Field illustrates the history of the base, with many images drawn from the collections of the Selfridge Military Air Museum and Mount Clemens Public Library. The development of American airpower, from crude biplanes to the supersonic F-16 fighter, is depicted in the photographic record of this historic military airfield.

The official, full-color, illustrated, behind-the-scenes companion to the lavish hit ITV and PBS television series Mr. Selfridge that vividly brings into focus the remarkable man and his time. Set at the crossroads between the old and the new—when the Victorian and Edwardian eras gave way to the modern age—Mr. Selfridge illuminates the passions, drama, tensions, and promise of the early twentieth century, embodied in one charming, dynamic, self-made man: department store tycoon Harry Gordon Selfridge. Mr. Selfridge follows a colorful cast of characters whose lives and fortunes are entangled with the founder of the magnificent department store that bears his name: Selfridge’s. American retail visionary Harry Selfridge moves to London in 1906 with his family to establish the most ambitious department store the world had ever seen. While his dreams inspire many, they also challenge the staid conventions of British society. A saga bursting with love affairs, class divisions, cultural clashes, ambition, betrayals, and secrets, Mr. Selfridge is set in an era when women reveled in a new sense of freedom and modernity. A charming, dynamic, brilliant, and forceful man who enjoys and respects women, Harry opens the doors of his opulent department story on London's famed Oxford Street to indulge, empower and celebrate them, changing the way the British—and the world—shopped forever. Including a foreword by series producer Andrew Davies, this official illustrated companion to the series—the biggest ITV-produced drama of all time—takes fans on a journey through the world of the series, Selfridge’s, and the larger-than-life entrepreneur, husband, lover, and family man behind it. Rich with historical detail, The World of Mr. Selfridge examines the real man and the fictional character based on him, his relationship with his family, his genius for retail, and his flagship store, including its departments and changing fashions in the early twentieth century. Complete with hundreds of gorgeous photographs, The World of Mr. Selfridge takes a closer look at the cast and their characters over the first two seasons, and looks ahead to series three, which begins in 1919—when Harry’s life really begins to unravel.

Named to honor the memory of Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge, the first fatality of powered flight, Selfridge Field has recorded many aviation milestones since its founding in 1917. As home of the famed First Pursuit Group, the airfield saw the feats of such notables as Charles Lindbergh, Jimmy Doolittle, and Curtis LeMay. Scores of young aviators who passed through Selfridge's gates later achieved the rank of general officer, earning the base the nickname "Home of the Generals." Selfridge Field illustrates the history of the base, with many images drawn from the collections of the Selfridge Military Air Museum and Mount Clemens Public Library. The development of American airpower, from crude biplanes to the supersonic F-16 fighter, is depicted in the photographic record of this historic military airfield.