The Body Shop closing is like I’m saying goodbye to my friend Anita all over again

This week’s news that the iconic beauty shop was shutting was met with a wave of nostalgia, but for those like Lynne Franks who knew the founder well, it really hit home. Here, she explains what Anita Roddick meant to her – and what she would have thought about the chain’s collapse

Generations of women will remember her products with fond memories, but Roddick’s empire was so much more than that (PA)

Anita Roddick’s husband, Gordon, always used to say that no one could ever get a word in when Anita and I were in a room together. It always made me laugh and was probably quite true. Back then, we were both mouthy brunettes, passionate about the things we believed in and in a hurry to change the world.

We looked quite like each other too, with similar tastes in clothes – although she had her trademark wild Italian curls which added to her look.

We first bumped into each other on the same women’s conference circuit in the late Eighties, encouraging other women to start businesses based on feminine values. By then, she had watched the shop she first opened in 1976 turn into an enormous global business.