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
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