Background

Shirley Conran is a bestselling author, whose books include Lace, which was made into an 80s US miniseries and Superwoman. She has been a columnist for Vanity Fair

Vanity Fair (magazine)

Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...

, women's editor of The Daily Mail and a feature writer for The Observer

The Observer

The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...

newspaper.

Conran was educated at the University of Portsmouth

University of Portsmouth

The University of Portsmouth is a university in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. The University was ranked 60th out of 122 in The Sunday Times University Guide...

. She was successfully treated for skin cancer

Skin cancer

Skin neoplasms are skin growths with differing causes and varying degrees of malignancy. The three most common malignant skin cancers are basal cell cancer, squamous cell cancer, and melanoma, each of which is named after the type of skin cell from which it arises...

 and has suffered from M.E.

Chronic fatigue syndrome

Chronic fatigue syndrome is the most common name used to designate a significantly debilitating medical disorder or group of disorders generally defined by persistent fatigue accompanied by other specific symptoms for a minimum of six months, not due to ongoing exertion, not substantially...

. She is the ex-wife of British designer, restaurateur, retailer and writer Sir Terence Conran and mother to designers Sebastian Conran

Sebastian Conran

-Early life:Born 5 April 1956 at Hyde Park Corner in London), his father is designer Terence Conran and mother, author and journalist Shirley Conran. He is the elder brother of the fashion designer Jasper Conran....

 and Jasper Conran

Jasper Conran

Jasper Alexander Thirlby Conran OBE is an English fashion designer. He is the son of the designer Sir Terence Conran and the author Shirley Conran.-Education:He was educated at Port Regis School and Bryanston School in the 1970s...

, with homes in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 and London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

.

Shirley Conran is well known for coining the phrases "Life's too short to stuff a mushroom" and "First things first, second things never".

Fiction

• Lace Simon & Schuster
  Simon & Schuster
  Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...
  
   (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)

Other

• The Magic Garden was adapted as a computer program and published by Acornsoft
  Acornsoft
  Acornsoft was the software arm of Acorn Computers Ltd, and a major publisher of software for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron. As well as games, they also produced a large number of educational titles, extra computer languages and business and utility packages - these included ROM-based word...
  
   for the BBC Micro
  BBC Micro
  The BBC Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, was a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers for the BBC Computer Literacy Project, operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation...
  
  as Shirley Conran's Magic Garden.