City profile

Roll up, roll up, who wants to own a “black leather cloth upholstered chromed steel swivel armchair” that “was once honoured (probably) by Sir Philip Green’s backside”, asked Nils Pratley in The Guardian. There was a grim fascination about the sale of fixtures and fittings from Arcadia’s boardroom last week. Sales were healthy, but creditors “shouldn’t hold their collective breath for a windfall”. Although the auctioneers described the collection as an example of “superyacht” styling, the pieces were “only averagely” garish. “In the market for memorabilia from high-profile corporate collapses, Lehman Brothers still wins.”

Green has many enemies, said Jenny Johnston in the Daily Mail. And these, it seems, include his elder sister. In a “tell-all” memoir, Elizabeth Green has painted a damning portrait of “a spoilt mummy’s boy”. The biggest barbs in the book are aimed at their mother, Alma, “a chain-smoking, moneyobsessed ‘tough cookie’” who owned launderettes and petrol stations, and worshipped her only son. “Whenever he did anything, it went on the wall, which turned into a shrine. By the time Philip got his knighthood, her whole flat was a shrine to him.” Elizabeth’s own relationship with Philip has long been difficult. He never once invited her on his £100m superyacht, Lionheart. She documents one hideous Christmas dinner at the Dorchester, when he flew into a rage because he gave her a Gucci bag and she only gave him a book. “That was Philip all over,” she says. “You just get to a point where you don’t want to be screamed at any more.”