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  • Published: 28 June 2018
  • ISBN: 9780241341261
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 368

Damaged Goods

The Rise and Fall of Sir Philip Green - The Sunday Times Bestseller




The gripping, jaw-dropping rise and fall of Sir Philip Green, the self-styled 'king of the high street'

In March 2015, British businessman and the chairman of Arcadia Group Sir Philip Green sold BHS for £1 to Retail Acquisitions, owned by Dominic Chappell, a serial bankrupt who filed BHS for administration shortly after. By April 2016, BHS had debts of £1.3bn, including a pensions deficit of £571m.

Damaged Goods follows Green's journey to the big time, the sale of BHS and the subsequent investigation that concluded with Green paying £363m to the Pensions Regulator.

In Damaged Goods, Oliver Shah, the award-winning journalist who first broke the story, shines a light on Green's past and Arcadia's uncertain future; this is the extraordinary account of the retail magnate Sir Philip Green's life and his relationship with the high street.

  • Published: 28 June 2018
  • ISBN: 9780241341261
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 368

Praise for Damaged Goods

From the glitzy parties to the threatening phone calls, the larger-than-life characters to the speedy downfall, this real-life tale of hubris has all the elements of a Greek tragedy. Either that or a James Graham box office hit

Alys Key, City A.M.

Meticulously researched... it's entertaining stuff, pacily written. Filled with colourful characters - and expletives.

Ian King, The Times

Brilliantly researched and sensational. The book reads as though it is on speed: there are moments when Shah's narrative runs like a frantic James Bond script interspersed with moments of Shakespearean farce. There are times you have to prick yourself to remember that Green's wheeling and dealing is not fiction but what actually took place behind the closed doors of the High Street

Maggie Pagano, Reaction

A detailed and entertaining dismantling of the 'king of the high street'

Tim Adams, Guardian

A sweeping, detailed colourful account of the rise and fall of the king of the UK's High Street, complete with a Dickensian cast of grifters, charlatans, flunkies, the odd dogged hero, and an irresistibly obnoxious protagonist. Shah has written a hard-hitting, often funny, ultimately sobering tale of how fortunes were made and lost in late 20th and early 21st century Britain.

Andrew Hill, Financial Times

Superb. It manages to be both forensic and pacey. It's penetrating, but it's not unfair. If there is a benefit of doubt to be given, Shah gives it.

Simon English, Evening Standard

A merciless, profanity-strewn dissection of the tumultuous career of UK retail tycoon Philip Green

Andrew Hill, FT & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award