Sales and writing runs in the Whyatt family

At the beginning of this blog I mention that my family have a long history in sales; perhaps I should elaborate. At the same time I should mention that there are three published writers in the family.

My grandfather James Hargreaves Whyatt (the James Hargreaves due to the fact that we are descended from James Hargreaves of spinning jenny fame – see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hargreaves ) was a shoe shop manager and salesman for many year.  In his later years he ran a village store in Kent with my grandmother. Pop loved people and selling to them, using his charming nature to sell ‘coals to Newcastle’ many times, as I can bear witness.

My father, Bertram James Whyatt, was also a shoe shop manager and salesman, working for Lotus Shoes in the days when they still had shops. As we lived above the shop (in Taunton), I saw him in action everyday when I came home from school, balancing three sales at once; with Auberon Waugh buying ‘gentlemen’s shoes’ whilst a young Mum tried to get Start-rite’s for her child and a teenage girl wanted to try on thigh-length boots. Quite a feat to juggle all those at once – I learnt a lot from just observing.

Dad is known as Jim in the family, but as Bert in the wonderful world of jazz, making him our first published writer. Dad/Bert has written about Jazz since the end of WW2, contributing to the Melody Maker amongst others, as well as to Jazz Journal, who he still writes for today, at 87. He also wrote the following book:

Muggsy Spanier : The Lonesome Road : A Biography and Discography / by Bert Whyatt. Jazzology Press, 1995. ISBN. 0963889028

Which sells second hand for £100. Try a Google search on Bert Whyatt Jazz and see hundreds of entries quoting his LP or CD reviews from Jazz Journal.

The second published writer is me, having had articles in various sales related magazines and journals over the last 8 years.

The other published writer and the most widely read is my eldest son Christopher Whyatt, who now writes for BBC Sport – try - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/7168641.stm .

Comments

[Skip Anderson]

Chris, it's nice to hear about your family history of sales. Reading your post reminded me of growing up and spending lots of time at my grandmother's children's clothing store. I would spend hours at her store and observe her and my uncle as they worked with customers. It was a small shop in the downtown area of a small rural American town, and loved how my grandmother would make customers feel when they came into the store.

That became my earliest selling experience. As I got a little older (10 or 11), my grandmother would let me help the customers as she looked on. She lived to 100 and always had retailing in her blood.