Join author Paul Gorman in conversation as we celebrate his new book Granny Takes a Trip: High Fashion and High Times at the Wildest Rock ‘n’ Roll Boutique.

Regarded as the original rock and roll clothes boutique, Granny Takes A Trip was more than just a shop and a fashion brand; it was, the template for all that followed. What started as an odd retail venture/art installation in a depressed part of London known as World’s End became an international byword for glam decadence in Manhattan and Hollywood, combining flamboyant style and all manner of countercultural activity attracting everyone from Pattie Boyd, Marianne Faithfull and Anita Pallenberg to Elton John, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart, the Beatles, and Lou Reed.

Hear how the tumultuous story of Granny Takes A Trip invokes a cast of often unique, sometimes entitled, unusually talented and troubled individuals on a collective mission to shake up austere, repressed, class-ridden Britain and white bread America. Paul will share how some achieved their goal at great personal cost as darkness, addiction and tragedy stalked those behind the extraordinary shop facades. Much mythologised but never told, this cautionary tale has now found its definitive chronicler in celebrated cultural historian Paul Gorman who has had access to first-hand accounts from all the principal figures, as well as notes for a memoir and a much-treasured scrapbook by Freddie Hornik, the tailoring entrepreneur who survived the death marches of central Europe after WW2 to acquire Granny Takes A Trip in the late 60s and transform into an unparalleled pop cultural force.

Granny Takes a Trip: High Fashion and High Times at the Wildest Rock ‘n’ Roll Boutique written by Paul Gorman with forwards by Amber Butchart and Anna Sui was published on 25 September 2025 by White Rabbit. Order your copy today.