Shirley Conran led the most extraordinary life, from writing bestsellers Superwoman and Lace to creating one of our most talented design dynasties
Shirley Conran has led the most extraordinary life, from the writing of bestsellers Superwoman and Lace to the creation of one of our most talented design dynasties.
But now she has revealed her most dramatic – and most secretive – challenge: surviving an operation to remove an orange-sized brain tumor.
“The chances were very high that I would die,” she told me.
“The operation lasted five and a half hours. When I got out, in a few hours, I had two attacks, so I was in intensive care for two days. “
Shirley, who was married to Habitat co-founder Sir Terence Conran, realized for the first time that she was in bad shape last year. “I had what looked like a spotlight on me, quickly turned on and off,” she says. “It turned out to be an epilepsy attack.”
MRI at St George’s Hospital in London revealed that she had a brain tumor, but the doctors couldn’t tell if she was malignant, so they decided not to operate. But months later, his brain deteriorated “until I can no longer walk, read or write and speak very slowly with a fuzzy voice.” She said, “I didn’t care about everything – my sons or my sisters.”
Shirley, 87, has two sons with Sir Terence: famous designers Jasper and Sebastian Conran. “This situation upset my children and my family because they saw me become a vegetable,” she says. The tumor grew quickly and it was decided that she needed surgery to remove it in January.
“I was hospitalized for ten days, then I was transferred to the Kensington Care Home for a month. I went out at the end of February, then the coronavirus entered and all the retirement homes closed. ”
Shirley, who was married to Habitat co-founder Sir Terence Conran, realized for the first time that she was in bad shape last year. “I had what looked like a spotlight on me, quickly turned on and off,” she says.
She now stays on the same road as Sebastian’s house in Notting Hill and is generally eager to start writing again.
‘They [the doctors] Has repeatedly warned me strongly not to try to work until April, “said the author, who coined the phrase” Life is too short to stuff a mushroom. “
She reveals that she is currently working on her memories. “For 40 years people have asked me to write my autobiography and I always said no because I would be bored. When mine is finished, I will decide if I want to publish it. “
It could be even more exciting than one of his novels.
There can’t be many actresses with the winning power of Lady Maggie Smith at the age of 85. I hear that the Downton Abbey star earned almost £ 1.5 million last year.
The newly released accounts of the company it uses to channel its revenue, Dame Margaret Cross Productions, report equity of £ 6.58 million – an increase of £ 1.47 million compared to 2018.
To think, her son, the Earl of Grantham, had to marry an American heiress to save her finances in Downton.
Do all young reality TV starlets look the same? That’s the conclusion of Prince Charles’s favorite singer Sheila Ferguson, who was on I’m A Celebrity and The Real Marigold Hotel.
“I tried to watch Love Island, but everyone [had] the same eyebrows, lips and cheeks, ”said the Three Degrees star. And pop singers are no different.
“The acts are finely cloned on the face,” she says. “Everyone seems to have plastic surgery after they exit the womb.”
Love trumps everything – even the virus crisis. I have heard that forced confinement has led to a proposal for Violet Fraser, granddaughter of the late J-Day hero Lord Lovat.
Violet, 47, will marry Etonian’s old attorney Alan Roxburgh, 47 too. “They are very happy even if, of course, the wedding will have to wait,” said one of their delighted friends.
Old-fashioned romance returns to the dating scene thanks to social distancing, according to Nancy Dell’Olio
(Very) modern ways
Old-fashioned romance returns to the dating scene thanks to social distancing, according to Nancy Dell’Olio.
“We are returning to the way of thinking of the 17th and 18th centuries, where you would have to write to your love,” said the former Strictly candidate from her native Italy, where she has been in detention for three weeks.
Nancy, 58, ex-inamorata of former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson and director Sir Trevor Nunn, adds: “I always have my admirers who send me messages.
“It’s nice to see men writing more – and some people write nice things.”
Bellissima!
