Product Description

Some people, the author included, love shopping so much that even the weekly trawl round Waitrose is a treat. In this essential guide/memoir, India Knight dissects the singular pleasures afforded by everyone's favourite pastime: from dragging your mother around TopShop aged 14 to feeling your entire life would somehow be perfect if only you bought that battered leather sofa. Part series of essays, part lists of essential information, you will never wonder about where to get the perfect 2-inches-off-the-waist pants again. The Shops is a book for everyone who's ever had to part with cash, which is to say, a book for everyone.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34813 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

About the Author
India Knight's first novel, My Life On A Plate, was published in 2000 to huge critical acclaim. Her second novel, Don't You Want Me, was published in 2002 and received similar rave reviews. She writes a column for The Sunday Times, alongside other newspapers and magazines. India Knight lives in London E8 with her two sons.

Customer Reviews

what a joy!
I happily bought this thinking it would be a glittery shopping guide, full of idiosynchratic little boutiques and heavenly make-up shops. And, fabulously, it is: everything from the softest baby blankets to the yummiest chocolates to the sweetest-smelling face cream. But, even more fabulously, it is so much more.
The shopping gems are peppered throughout in boxes, surrounded by beautiful, curly illustrations, but holding them all together are the most brilliantly-written, touching, honest, funny memoirs about the author's shopping life. Essays about buying her wedding dress, supermarket shopping with her mother, buying birthday presents, being a teenager shopping for clothes. And they are each one wonderful.
I had a blissful time reading this book, and in the run-up to Christmas it will, I fear, become very dog-earred. Although, I suspect I might ignore most of India Knight's excellent and thoughtful gift ideas, and instead buy her book for everyone!

My best random purchase of the year so far...
I bought this book on a whim, (I am exactly that kind of shopper), and wouldn't hesitate to advise everyone else to snap it up, especially now that it's available in paperback. The best thing about it is that there really is something in it for everyone - I'm positive you don't have to even ENJOY shopping to appreciate India Knight's sense of humour and confessional yet practical style. It's handily indexed, so you don't have to read it cover-to-cover - although trust me, you'll want to. Based on my family's interactions with it, women of all ages can expect to become intrigued, or perhaps, like me, swiftly addicted. Men, (be they husbands, boyfriends, sons, brothers or friends) looking for a treat for themselves or a well-chosen bargain/indulgence for the women in their lives may well find this an indispensible volume. Similarly, I prize it for having sorted out my Dad-present problems for life!!

Absolutely fabulous
This book is everything the other reviewers say and more. The funniest thing about it (apart from the fact that it is very funny indeed) is that I feel like it's my friend. I know this sounds mad, but I really love this book, in the same way that I really love my favourite handbag. I want to carry it around with me and consult it whenever I feel like I need cheering up. There's something sort of magically charming about it - you know how you have a favourite book when you're young and it gets all tattered and dog-eared because you can't stop reading it and take it everywhere with you? This is one of those. I haven't felt this way about a book since I was a teenager, and I'm a 35 year old woman!