Jacqueline Gold freed women to shamelessly enjoy themselves
The builder of the Ann Summers empire died on March 16th, aged 62
The party wasn’t one Jacqueline Gold would normally have gone to. It was in a council flat in Thamesmead, a dreary estate out on the estuary. She was used to more select Biggin Hill farther south, where she grew up in a big detached house with a pool and a view over rolling fields. But in 1981 she went to Thamesmead with a friend, to a Pippa Dee party, where women got together to buy clothes. Home-selling had been a craze for a while, starting with Tupperware, where bored housewives sold each other countless plastic bowls and jugs to get commission and free gifts. Pippa Dee parties were a bit more fun than that.
This article appeared in the Obituary section of the print edition under the headline “Good vibrations”
From the March 25th 2023 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionDiscover more
Celeste Caeiro’s small gesture named a revolution
The Portuguese restaurant worker and single mother died on November 15th, aged 91
Frank Auerbach aimed only at one memorable image
Britain’s most obsessive figurative painter died on November 11th, aged 93
Baltazar Ushca climbed Chimborazo twice a week
The last Ecuadorean ice-harvester died on October 11th, aged 80
Quincy Jones ruled popular music for half a century
The producer, arranger and film-score writer died on November 3rd, aged 91
Lily Ebert lived to share her story of Auschwitz
The Holocaust survivor and memoirist died on October 9th, aged 100
Fethullah Gulen tried to transform Turkey in the subtlest ways
The scholar, teacher and activist died on Ocrober 20th, aged 83