Behind the Shop Facade: The Life of Maurice Dorfman

photographs & story by Jim Grover

An ‘unsung but well-lived life’. This is the story of high street shopkeeper Maurice Dorfmann, whose family ran Jeanette Fashions on Clapham High Street for six decades, told by photographer Jim Grover who passionately believes that all lives are extraordinary, and goes to extraordinary lengths to research, remember and tell them. Fleeing from the Jewish pogroms in the early 20th century, which were occurring across Russia and Poland, Maurice’s forebears left the city of Kam’yanets’-podil’s’kyi in Western Ukraine to settle in the East End of London. Packed with evocative historic and contemporary photos, plus documents and family trees, memories and transcribed interviews of friends and acquaintances, the book is a rich account of a family’s history. A touching read and of great interest to those researching family in the Jewish textile employment scene and London community too.

• behindtheshopfacade.com (soft cover) £40. ISBN: 978-1-03-497188-7. HT