Shirley Conran Books In Order

Publication Order of Lace Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Picture Books

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Shirley Conran
Shirley Conran was born September 21, 1932. Shirley was educated at the University of Portsmouth.

She has written for Vanity Fair, served as women’s editor of The Observer and The Daily Mail. Shirley was also the first women’s editor for “The Observer Colour Magazine”. While the editor at the Daily Mail, she launched the weekly women’s magazine, called “Femail”.

Shirley also has great experience as a designer in textiles and as a color consultant, and 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.

Her novel “Lace”, published in the year 1982, spent 13 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller, peaking at number 6, and was adapted into a 1980s US miniseries. It starred Bess Armstrong, Arielle Dombassle, Brooke Adams, and Phoebe Cates.

She was married to Terrence Conran (British restaurateur, designer, retailer, and writer) from 1955 until 1962, and they are the parents of sons: Jasper Conran and Sebastian Conran, who are both designers. In the year 2009, she announced she suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome. She owns homes in London and France and lived in Monaco or several years. Shirley founded Maths Action, the educational non-profit.

“Lace” is the first novel in the “Lace” series and was released in 1982. “Which one of you bitches is my mother?”

Four successful, elegant, and sophisticated women each in their forties get called to meet Lili (a gorgeous, young, and notoriously temperamental Hollywood film star) at New York’s Pierre Hotel. None of these women knows quite why she is there; each woman is astonished to see the others, and each has got a reason to hate Lili.

They are old friends that share a guilty secret and who’ve been doing their best to keep this secret under wraps for years now. Their lives changed forever, though, once Lili confronted them suddenly. The women refuse to answer her, so Lili goes around the world through the playgrounds of the rich and famous, looking to answer the question which has obsessed and almost destroyed her.

From London to Paris, from the bedroom to the boardroom, “Lace” takes readers into the rarified world of five unforgettable women that are as beautiful, as strong and as complex as lace.

“Savages” is the first stand alone novel and was released in 1987. A spirited survival story. A group of Nexus executives takes their wives to the South Pacific paradise of Paui, and vacation is the furthest thing from their minds. Having found some rare minerals on the island, they’re determined to strike a rather swift deal for the mining rights. However in their greedy rush to claim this prize, the men fail to take into account a rather rapacious general, who takes control of the island in his military coup and savagely executes every single one of them.

Returning from a sail in time to see the massacre, the women escape into the jungle, where they painfully yet a bit too easily learn their survival tricks from the captain of the ship. His subsequent death leaves the formerly shy Annie in charge of the rest. They are: Suzy, who is a spoiled child and sensuous. Carey who is outspoken. Silvana, a distant and wealthy matron. Patty, athletic and high strung.

Even though misfortune rains down on this group, opportunity does have a way of magically appearing, too, while these castaways battle the cannibalistic natives, jungle, and their own frightening desires with a gritty determination which belies their pampered pasts.

With this novel, Shirley whips up tension, excitement, and (at times) a horror struck fascination which makes this tale tale one entertaining page turner.

“Crimson” is the second stand alone novel and was released in 1992. Elinor O’Dare is a legendary romance novelist. She’s on her deathbed and has to figure out who she’s going to leave her vast fortune to. She raised her three granddaughters after their parents died in an accident.

Which, if any, of her three granddaughters is going to inherit? Gorgeous Annabel, Clare (the movie producer’s wife with a social conscience), and Miranda (the brilliant businesswoman)?

“Tiger Eyes” is the third stand alone novel and was released in 1994. Plum, a young painter, went through a disastrous first marriage, which left her with two kids to support. She’s now married to this dangerously attractive transatlantic art dealer, named Breeze.

When Plum intercepts this international art fraud syndicate, she follows this dangerous trail of some forged paintings from London to New York, on to Los Angeles, then Sydney, and then to Paris.

“The Revenge” is the fourth stand alone novel and was released in 1998. When Mimi Quinn, a teenager, gets sent to London by her mom in order to become a domestic servant, she encounters a colorful group of music hall players that ensure her life goes off at a different tangent. She becomes a singer, and her gorgeous friend Betsy is obviously destined to be a major star in the troupe.

However when a horrible accident destroys their ambitions and inaugurates a relentless feud between two of the most famous acting families on either side of the Atlantic, the stage is set for a full-blooded epic of revenge, passion, and betrayal.

It is easy to forget at this point in time just how fully Shirley Conran changed the whole face of British blockbuster publishing. Now that there’s so many imitators that have tried stealing her thunder, it is a struggle to remember were outraged by her heroines’ unorthodox sexual practices. Or by the fact that Penguin was ready to publish such an unbuttoned writer.

Possibly aware of the necessity to innovate (so that she could stay ahead of the game) Shirley produces a lavish historical novel that transports the reader through the first half of the 20th century. But her fans don’t need to worry that this change of direction shift is too extreme, because all of the trademark raciness and candor are in place.