John Goode has worked in Howells for 37 years. He started his career as assistant buyer and now runs the Gold Card suite

We have had some fantastic customers over the years. We used to have one lady who would come in to speak to Rupert Everard who was quite wicked. We used to have to hand write the account bill and she would come in and shout at the staff and her name was Nicholas and she would always say the name is NICK- O- LAS to see if any of the girls would laugh. So one day she came in and Rupert was in Italy and she came in through the library door shouting do I get any service here? I was standing behind her and said, What would you like Mrs Nicholas Anglican or free church?
We could get away with being quite wicked to them if they were like it to you, you always had to be polite though because you wouldn't want to upset anybody.