Something Wholesale: My Life and Times in the Rag Trade

It is probably only due to my ‘completist' tendencies that I read this. I have no specific (or even general) interest in wholesale fashion 1945-1956, (surprise, surprise), but I do like Eric Newby and his writing. He is very British in his thinking, self-deprecating, funny and still very honest.

In a business owned by his parents, Newby having returned to England from being a prisoner of war, is in need of work. His father makes him (he has no choice) fill in for an ill traveller to visit some wholesale customers, and that is pretty much that. He becomes a salesman of ladies dresses in an already outdated and old fashioned business.

I had read some excerpts of this book in one or other of Newby's short story collections, and it turned out to be one of the funnier parts, so the wind was taken out of its sails a little. But this book covers a little more than just Newby's work. There is a lot about his eccentric father, and Eric's relationship with him.

To me his descriptions of Lane and Newby, the various departments, the various characters who manage their departments etc called up images of Grace Brothers Department Store from Are yo being Served? on television. Despite that being a department store rather than a fashion house, and running in a different decade (1972 to 1985), it was still conjured up from the imagery Newby describes. Newby writes very good character portraits, and he does this for most people he works with in this book.

Perhaps lacking the excitement of his adventure books A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, The great Grain Race, Love And War in the Apennines to name a few, it is however a very easy read - I knocked through it in two days. Clearly many other reviewers picked it up expecting it to be much more than it is too, although they were much more disappointed than me.

3.5 stars, rounded down. Still a great read at 3 stars.