THE DISAPPEARING BRITISH HIGH STREET…

The most profound song ever written is surely Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell, penned after she had got fed up looking at clouds from both sides.

I write these words as the news media has announced the closing of Debenhams, the department store owned by Boohoo. It was indeed Boohoo for workers and also a sad occasion for British shoppers, who had been visiting the place since it was founded in 1778. The queues were obviously longer back then. With no face masks.

But without wanting to appear too flippant, the demise of Debenhams gave me inspiration for this month’s editorial. Infinity is all about nostalgia and that also encompasses the shops we visited in our youth.

Growing up in the rural village of Westcott in Surrey I used to think that shopkeepers were just one step away from royalty. Well it stood to reason that with all the stuff they owned they must have been millionaires.