Shirley Conran (1932–2024)
Author of Lace
About the Author
Image credit: Shirley Conran Photo by David Cairns
Series
Works by Shirley Conran
Love. Roman. 1 copy
ミミ・クインの復讐〈下〉 (扶桑社ロマンス) 1 copy
ミミ・クインの復讐〈上〉 (扶桑社ロマンス) 1 copy
LACE VOL1 1 copy
Oko tygrysa 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Conran, Shirley
- Legal name
- Conran, Shirley Ida
- Other names
- Conran, Lady Shirley
- Birthdate
- 1932-09-21
- Date of death
- 2024-05-09
- Gender
- female
- Education
- St Paul's Girls' School, London
finishing school, Switzerland
Southampton University (as Southern College of Art, Portsmouth|sculpture)
University of the Arts London (as Chelsea Polytechnic|painting) - Occupations
- journalist
- Organizations
- Vanity Fair
Daily Mail
The Observer - Awards and honors
- Order of the British Empire (Liz Truss resignation honours list|Dame Commander|2022)
- Relationships
- Conran, Terence (husband|1955|divorced|1962)
Conran, Sebastian (son)
Conran, Jasper (son) - Short biography
- Shirley Conran 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. A bestselling author in her own right whose most memorable books include Lace and Superwoman.
She was educated at the University of Portsmouth. In addition to novel writing, she wrote regularly for The Observer newspaper's women's page and was the first women's editor of The Observer Colour Magazine and women's editor of The Daily Mail newspaper where she launched the weekly women's magazine 'Femail'. She also has great experience as a designer in textiles and as a colour consultant - she had her own paint range. She handled the publicity for the Women in Media Campaign devoted to sex discrimination legislation. She was on the selection committee of the Council of Industrial Design for eight years. She also has been a columnist for Vanity Fair (magazine).
Shirley Conran is well known for having said: "First things first, second things never".
She was successfully treated for skin cancer several years ago.
She has homes in France and London. - Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Hendon, Middlesex, England, UK
- Places of residence
- London, England, UK
Bordeaux, Gironde, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France - Associated Place (for map)
- England, UK
Members
Reviews
Perfect drama queen reading. All glamour, jet setting, champagne and caviar. Well apart from the teenage pregnancies, domestic violence and rape. Fantastic fun and kept me guessing right to the end.
When a group of mining executives bring their wives to an island paradise, vacation is not on their minds. But in their greedy rush to claim the prize, the men fail to take into account a general who takes control of the island and brutally executes all of them. Leaving their wives to fend for themselves in the jungle.
Read (and even reread) this in the good old days when I actually had patience with teeny font sizes and 700 pages in a paperback. Found my old copy today while implementing some 'shelf-control' and felt nostalgic. Hence this review. :D
Story Synopsis:
I remember loving the story but finding the ending abrupt and disappointing. The proceedings are somewhat predictable, but then again, the book was written in 1999 – judge accordingly.
It must be more than 15 years since I last read this but Mimi and Betsy are still strong in my mind – that’s an indicator of the amazing character development in this book.
Despite the lacklustre climax, definitely recommended if you enjoy:
✔ Historical fiction with LGBTQ rep.
✔ A tale of friendship, betrayal, and revenge.
✔ Strong and well-sketched characters
✔ Interesting depiction of ‘behind-the-scenes’ of vaudeville shows and Hollywood movies in the silent era.
✔ A narrative of how rags-to-riches doesn’t necessarily have a happily-ever-after.
PS: If this book had come on my radar today, I wouldn’t even have cast a second glance at it because of its abysmal GR rating. I wonder how many good books I have thus missed out on, simply because I mostly ignore books with GR ratings of less than 3.8 stars. Oh well! C'est la vie.
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Story Synopsis:
The story of the rivalry between Mimi Quinn (extraordinary voice and stage presence) and Betsy Bridges (extraordinary looks). After an accident tests their friendship, their lives aren’t the same again. This tale begins somewhere in the earlyshow more
1900s and lasts about 70 years.
I remember loving the story but finding the ending abrupt and disappointing. The proceedings are somewhat predictable, but then again, the book was written in 1999 – judge accordingly.
It must be more than 15 years since I last read this but Mimi and Betsy are still strong in my mind – that’s an indicator of the amazing character development in this book.
Despite the lacklustre climax, definitely recommended if you enjoy:
✔ Historical fiction with LGBTQ rep.
✔ A tale of friendship, betrayal, and revenge.
✔ Strong and well-sketched characters
✔ Interesting depiction of ‘behind-the-scenes’ of vaudeville shows and Hollywood movies in the silent era.
✔ A narrative of how rags-to-riches doesn’t necessarily have a happily-ever-after.
PS: If this book had come on my radar today, I wouldn’t even have cast a second glance at it because of its abysmal GR rating. I wonder how many good books I have thus missed out on, simply because I mostly ignore books with GR ratings of less than 3.8 stars. Oh well! C'est la vie.
———————————————
Connect with me through:
My Blog | The StoryGraph | Facebook | Twitter show less
I found myself not whipping through this because I cared about the women, but because I wanted to see how Conran would wrap it up. It’s as realistic as my limited experience of equatorial jungles lets me judge. Some disease and filth thrown in, but not enough to kill the women. Some sex thrown in, but not enough to detract from the story. Some violence thrown in, but not enough to turn the women into men.
The beginning trip into their corporate lives was interesting but not vital. We’ve show more all seen enough of Dallas and Dynasty to get the picture, but I guess the author of Lace couldn’t resist. I think killing off their guide, and only adult male on this adventure was wise, otherwise it depicts the always insulting premise that a woman cannot survive without a man. That would have pissed me off. Of course, to make it believable, he has to be there to guide them in the beginning, otherwise these bimbos wouldn’t have survived their first exposed hours on the beach. show less
The beginning trip into their corporate lives was interesting but not vital. We’ve show more all seen enough of Dallas and Dynasty to get the picture, but I guess the author of Lace couldn’t resist. I think killing off their guide, and only adult male on this adventure was wise, otherwise it depicts the always insulting premise that a woman cannot survive without a man. That would have pissed me off. Of course, to make it believable, he has to be there to guide them in the beginning, otherwise these bimbos wouldn’t have survived their first exposed hours on the beach. show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 28
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 1,618
- Popularity
- #15,920
- Rating
- 3.4
- Reviews
- 29
- ISBNs
- 167
- Languages
- 13