Search results for ""author christopher fenwick""

This is the story of a family department store business that has delighted the shoppers of Newcastle and Bond Street, London. The Fenwick family firm was founded by John James Fenwick in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1882 and, in less than ten years, he had also opened in London's Mayfair on the corner of New Bond Street and Brook Street. Includes photos of the family, staff and stores from the beginning to the present day. There is lots of original marketing material showing how the Fenwick stores have attracted customers including the complete list of the famous Christmas windows. This is a wonderful and complete story of how this family grew a corner shop business into one of the top retail shopping experiences in many cities in the UK. AUTHOR: Christopher Fenwick was for more than thirty years a Director of Fenwick Ltd, mainly as Marketing and Development Director. He worked with his brothers, cousins and a host of colleagues to develop and expand the business. He is, perhaps, most publicly known for initiating with brilliant Display Manager and Visualiser of the Company, Bill Cass, the annual Christmas animated display windows in the Newcastle store. These attract hundreds of thousands of people of all ages to see them year by year. He graduated from The University of Cambridge with a degree in History and has maintained his studentship in the subject with a lifelong membership of the Historical Association. He has written one other book, 20,000 Miles, the story of his motor trip with two companions through Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa, driven in 1960. A précis of this story won him the Royal Marines Parkinson Cumine Medal and Prize for 1960.

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If in 2017, a group of young men had decided to emulate this odyssey, they would probably only have managed a part of the journey. Conflict and bureaucracy would have barred their entry to many of the countries they tried to cross. However, in 1960, three young Cambridge graduates bought themselves an Austin A40 and set off on a marathon trip via Colombo to attend a friend’s wedding in Cape Town. They took the long way there. Christopher Fenwick, along with his friends Robin Gaunt and John Maclay, set off across continents on the motoring adventure of their lives through Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Their staple diet was Fray Bentos steak and kidney pie, usually eaten at the roadside. They even meet old schoolfriends along the way in Iran and had tea with Mr. Nehru, the Indian Prime Minister, with his daughter Indira Gandhi and grandson Rajiv who were to follow in his footsteps. Their loyal saloon car suffered the ravages of potholed roads and mountains but friendly mechanics always came to their rescue, while the men soon became quite adept themselves at repairing and cannibalising the vehicle as it suffered various breakdowns en route. Eventually they made it to Ceylon from where they embarked for the last leg of their trip by boat via the Yemen, flying from there to Ethiopia and onwards through Africa to raise a glass of champagne in Cape Town.

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