Book
As the Crow Flies
First published 1991
Charlie Trumper begins life helping at his grandfather’s fruit and vegetable barrow in the East End of London. Service in the First World War interrupts his early plans, but after returning home he and Becky Salmon begin expanding a small shop into a retail enterprise. Their ambitions carry them through the prosperity of the 1920s, the financial pressure of the Depression and the social barriers imposed by class and established wealth.
Across more than sixty years, the business grows into a department-store empire while marriage, rivalry and succession determine who will control it. The Second World War and post-war reconstruction repeatedly alter the commercial landscape and the lives of the Trumper family. The novel uses the development of modern British retailing as the framework for a family saga about persistence, social mobility and the cost of turning personal ambition into a dynasty.
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