Family Business: An Intimate History of John Lewis and the Partnership

The book "The John Lewis Partnership: How a Family Built a Retail Empire" by Victoria Glendinning explores the family that founded the John Lewis retail empire, their eccentricities, and the conflicts that blighted their relationships as their wealth grew. It also captures the toxic relationships between Lewis and his two sons, Spedan and Oswald, as they collided over the future of the business. Despite the challenges, Spedan's vision of a Partnership model was realized and survives to this day. The book concludes with an assessment of John Lewis's position in British sensibilities and the future of retail institutions like it.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 352 pages
Publication date: 18 August 2022
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

From Victoria Glendinning, winner of the Duff Cooper Prize, the James Tait Black Prize, and (twice) the Whitbread Prize for Biography, comes this captivating and enlightening group biography, set against the backdrop of the ascent of supermarket moguls from modest beginnings.

Who was John Lewis? What is the story behind the retail empire that bears his name? Behind the glass windows and displays of soft furnishings, this book reveals the family that founded the shops in all their eccentricities, and whose relationships became blighted by conflicts of epic proportions as their wealth bloomed.

Born into poverty, John Lewis was orphaned at the age of seven when his father died in a Somerset workhouse. Dreaming of a better life, the young man traveled to London at the start of what would become a retail revolution. From early years as a drapers apprentice, we see how Lewis's first pokey little business opened on Oxford Street in 1864, and expanded as an emerging middle class embraced the department stores as a recreational experience.

Prize-winning biographer Victoria Glendinning has had full access to the company and family archives to write this eye-opening story. She captures the toxic relationships that unfolded between Lewis and his two sons, Spedan and Oswald, as they collided over the future of their retail empire – their worst moments including emotional blackmail, face-slapping, and a kidnapping – and much litigation between father and both sons.

Yet the family never broke up, and Spedan's vision of a Partnership model to act as an ethical corrective and foster a community of happier, more productive workers was eventually realized and survives to this day.

With riveting personal detail, this brilliant group biography captures the essence of a family's journey through adversity and triumph, leaving readers with a deeper understanding of the man behind the retail empire and the legacy he has left behind.

Weight: 268g
Dimension: 129 x 198 x 27 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780008273781