Shirley Conran, the industrious and proliferous British author whose 1982 novel, “Lace,” was a tale of female autonomy disguised as a bonkbuster (to use the British term for a steamy best ...

Our romance columnist recommends four new books. By Olivia Waite Olivia Waite, the Book Review’s romance fiction columnist, writes queer and historical romance, fantasy and critical essays on ...

Author and campaigner Dame Shirley Conran rose to fame in the late 70s writing about the expectations on women to be superwomen, coining the phrase “life is too short to stuff a mushroom”. The 91-year ...

Certainly Dame Shirley Conran wrote a lot about sex. And she did dare to use the word “sexual”—and indeed “panting”. Not to mention “gasping”, “throbbing” and “writhing”.