Just Bea-ing An Ordinary Girl

By Emma Pinch on May 12, 08 11:43 AM

Fascinated by the idea of Princess Bea going to work as a personal shopper at Selfridges.
("I'd like the green one. No the red. Do you know what I've changed my mind. Be a poppet and fetch it out in green again? And I want a fresh one. With an even number of buttons." What a hoot!)

I love Selfridges. It's like one of those fairy tale American stores from The Grinch Who Stole Christmas with it's art deco architecture and fantastical Christmas windows.

I worked in lingerie and children's shoes there (that's two seperate departments by the way) and we encountered the most fascinating spectrum of people (48AA in the pink? Certainly sir.) you could get anywhere, from Sheiks and their fleet of wives to TV presenters to little old ladies from the East End. It's that kind of shop.

I can recommend to Bea the canteen - huge, like a proper restaurant, you can sneak your mates up there for lunch for about a quid - and the lavish Christmas parties, which are magical. One year we had it at the Cafe de Paris, over about five floors with Edwin Starr playing on one, Bjorn Again on another plus casinos and cocktail bars, amazing.

But being a princess on £12,000 a year is probably be quite a challenge. Head up the road to John Lewis's dear, they've got a profit share scheme which pays out an extra couple of hundrd in December- handy for all the family pressies at Christmas.