Shirley Conran

Shirley Conran (born September 21, 1932) is the ex-wife of British designer, restaurateur, retailer and writer Sir Terence Conran. She is the mother of designers Sebastian Conran and Jasper Conran. She is a bestselling author in her own right whose books include Lace and Superwoman.

She was educated at the University of Portsmouth.

Shirley Conran is well known for having said: "Life is too short to stuff a mushroom" and "First things first, second things never".

She was successfully treated for skin cancer several years ago.

She has homes in France and London. In addition to novel writing, she has been a columnist for Vanity Fair (magazine), women's editor of The Daily Mail newspaper and a feature writer for The Observer newspaper.

Publications

Conran's most famous book is Lace, first published in the United States by Simon & Schuster on 1 July 1982. The hardcover edition ran to 604 pages. It was adapted into the television mini-series Lace. Below is a list of her works to date:

Fiction

• Lace (1982)
• Lace 2 (1985)
• The Complete Story (omnibus) (1986)
• Savages (1987)
• Crimson (1992)
• Tiger Eyes (1994)
• The Revenge (aka Revenge of Mimi Quinn) (1998)
• The Amazing Umbrella Shop (1990)

Non-fiction

• Superwoman (1975)
• Superwoman 2 (1977)
• Futurewoman: How to Survive Life After Thirty (1979)
• Superwoman in Action (1979)
• The Magic Garden (1983)
• Down with Superwoman: For Everyone Who Hates Housework (1990)

The Magic Garden was adapted as a computer program and published by Acornsoft for the BBC Micro as Shirley Conran's Magic Garden.