Magrudy’s began trading in 1975, and quickly became a central part of Dubai life. At first selling mainly educational toys and school supplies, children’s books formed part of our very first offering. By popular request, new categories were quickly added: mother and baby, cookery, fiction and so on. We had to open a second shop to fit in all the books, which were by this point the biggest part of our business. Although Jumeirah remains the “spiritual home” of Magrudy’s – still visited by the same customers who shopped with us as children in the Seventies and Eighties, now parents themselves – the ever-increasing demand for books in Dubai allowed us to begin opening new shops.