Shirley Conran

Shirley Conran ( born September 21, 1932 in London) is a British novelist and journalist who has also published non-fiction. In German-speaking countries it is above all because of their love stories known that showed in some respects due to the liberal feminist issues and the language features.

Life

Shirley Ida Conran was born in 1932 in London as the daughter of an entrepreneur from several cleaning companies, where she grew up also. She completed her formal schooling at St. Paul's Girls School in Hammersmith and at a boarding school in Switzerland. In St. Paul's, they became friends with the later painter Gillian Ayres. At the age of 19 years threw her father, a violent alcoholic, without opposition of her mother, Conran from the house. Because of her interest in the techniques of pictorial art, she began to study (part of the University of Southampton today ) sculpture at Portsmouth Art College, and later studied painting at the Chelsea Polytechnic College (now University of London). Even if they later turned to writing and journalism, she has left to get the love of art, such as her collection of ethnographic works and images of contemporary painting, in particular the works of David Hockney's witness.

Shirley Conran eventually attended the University of Portsmouth to study creative writing there. In the course of her literary career, she has written many bestsellers, such as Lace with around three million copies sold, which experienced an adaptation as a mini series in the United States and the non-fiction book series Superwoman. Your particular in the 80s quite popular romance novels have been translated into 20 languages ​​in total. In German-speaking island of the five women was her most successful novel, which through several editions with several publishers.

In her time as a journalist, she worked from 1964 as a columnist for Vanity Fair, and since the early 1960s as an editor of the " woman part " of The Daily Mail and author of features for The Observer. In the 1960s she made ​​many contacts and joined with the Women in Media in one of the former feminism organizations.

She was successfully treated for skin cancer and suffered from 1970 to 1979 in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. While overcoming this illness she wrote with Superwoman. Every Woman 's book of household management, a household management book for modern women. Operative part of this successful book was her quote that life is too short to waste it with the filling of mushrooms, ie the mere fulfillment of household services for dinner parties. Even though the book overall was a best seller of 750,000 Hardcoverexemmplaren, knew her then publisher shift the search costs on them and made primarily self profit from it. Nevertheless, she stayed with this series and concerned for their U.S. contracts a lawyer.

Conran was married to the British designer, restaurateur, retailer and writer Terence Conran 1955-1962. Her two children Sebastian Conran and Jasper Conran also work as a designer, where she focused on Jasper designing fashion. 1994 were counted them as 84 - richest woman in Britain. Shirley Conran lives both in Cannes, France, in a historic 11th-century Château, as well as in London. From the late 70s until the mid- 1990s, she lived in Monaco since her old friend and colleague Anthony Burgess had convinced them that it was much cheaper than the overpriced rents in London. Overall, she was married three times.

On the occasion of her 80th birthday Lace was reissued in a revised version and with an afterword by the author provided. So Conran put himself much importance to words such as masturbation, which were her still forbidden even in the 1980s by the publisher, are now again in the text. In their view, women of her generation were only able to obtain by means of their own money power over their lives. They even had to learn this twice in her life to the " hard way ." - Once by the expulsion from the parents, the other times through the divorce at a young age

" In my teens, money was a dirty word. My parents would say, ' You get everything paid for: what do you want money for? Be grateful for what you've Gothic ' But what women experience is did you can make unhappiness a great deal more endurable; 99.9 per cent of the goddam globe belongs to men. The importance of money is played down to women - but if it's so unimportant, why have the men got it all? "-" During my teenage years, money was a dirty word. My parents would have said, you have everything that has been paid for with money: So why do you need money? Be thankful for what you have ' But experience teaches women that can make a cash unhappy, more than you can bear. ; 99.9 % of the damn world belongs to men. The importance of money is against women thereby downplayed - but if it's so unimportant, then why have the men "

In this context, it referred to the press as interesting that Terence Conran's "official" biography for decades, though always mentioned the names of the sons, but omitted the names of their birth mother. When her son Jasper expressed in an interview that he was estranged from his mother and she wanted to clarify this in a telephone conversation with him, she turned to her surprise, found that he remained unattainable for them due to his professional appointments, and saw in it an element of truth. Meanwhile, they expressed themselves that they have not spoken for ten years with her son Jasper and explained that she had better put children into the world. Because so on their own they would have had to be divided between career and motherhood. Nevertheless, she dedicated the new edition of their bestselling Lace and her two sons.

Shirley Conran was also a close friend of Diana Spencer, who mediated more extensive contacts in the field of culture.

Works

Novels

• Lace. Simon & Schuster ( 1982) Love. From the English transferred by Claus Fischer, Diana -Verlag, Zurich 1984. ISBN 3-905414-05-8. ( After 1988, also repeatedly published under the title Blood Bond )

• The island of the five women. Translated from English by Monika Seeger, Diana -Verlag, Zurich, 1988, ISBN 3-905414-75-9.

• The dynasty of the women. Translated from English by Christine Moessel, Hestia, Rastatt 1993, ISBN 3-89457-034-2.

• Tiger Eyes. Translated from English by Edith Walter, Hestia, Rastatt 1995, ISBN 3-89457-054-7.

Non-fiction

• Superwoman. Every Woman 's book of household management. (1975)
• Superwoman 2 (1977 )
• Future Woman: How to Survive Life After Thirty (1979 )
• Superwoman in Action (1979 )
• The Magic Garden (1983 )
• Down with Superwoman: For Everyone Who Hates Housework (1990 )

Adaptations

• Lace ( TV mini-series ) Director: William Hale, Starring: Bess Armstrong, Brooke Adams, Arielle Dombasle, 1984.
• The Magic Garden was adapted as a computer program and developed by Acornsoft for BBC Micro as Shirley Conran 's Magic Garden.