She wasn't a snob and liked raffish individuals, but people often saw her as very ruthless, hiring and firing in a very cavalier fashion Her view was, 'We're all free spirits. I'm running the shop and anyone is free to leave.' " Christina was repulsed by almost all elements of modernity, such as computers or electric tills. Until the Nineties, round-pin electric plugs were still used in Foyles. The shop's ancient lift was next to useless.Christina did sometimes prosecute shoplifters, but this was only rarely the case. One of the more charming oddities of her regime was a tea trolley, which trundled round the store providing refreshment for members of staff.
It was operated by a Swiss lady called Erica, who sternly rebuffed any attempts by members of the public to purchase a Twix or a Crunchie. When the finances of Foyles were probed after the death of Christina, the tea-trolley bank account was found to contain £160,000. One of the less appealing eccentricities of the store was the way that customers were obliged to queue three times in order to make a purchase. Often compared to the procedure at the GUM store in Moscow, it involved queuing with your book to obtain a scribbled docket from a sales assistant. You had to queue again at a cashier's booth where you got your docket stamped after paying.
Then you had to queue once more in order to hand over your stamped docket in exchange for the book. Though it is commonly believed that this rigmarole still persists at Foyles, in fact it disappeared while Christina was still at the helm.In May 1999, the great autocrat of Foyles failed to appear at work. In her final week of life, she appointed Christopher as the only other director of the company Her will proved to be characteristically bizarre. She left £60m to set up a charitable trust, though neglected to specify which causes she wished to support. A former handyman at her Essex estate received £100,000 in order to care for her six tortoises Her family received nothing.
Christina did, however, endow the family firm with one useful asset Though it was losing money, Foyles was not in debt In fact, there was £3m in the bank. Christopher set to work dragging the vast bookshop into the 21st century. He brought in his cousin Bill Samuel as a fellow director in charge of day-to-day activities. Together, they began to plan a £3m refit.Four years on, there are large sections of this rambling, still idiosyncratic store that Christina wouldn't recognise.
