A Stylish Family

As you may have gathered from our cover, we’re marking the 80th birthday of designer Sir Terence Conran by celebrating his extraordinary life and work.

His is a story of entrepreneurial design; from his early career working on the Festival of Britain on the Southbank, to the formation of Habitat and the Design Museum.

What’s come through clearly in this tale is that Sir Terence is passionate about design and that it has been the backbone of his career and longevity. Even at 80, he says he’ll never retire but will continue to work on. Reading our interview you get the sense that it’s not only a burning passion for design that drives him on, but also, like so many successful entrepreneurs, he’s a workaholic. He was recently quoted in the Daily Telegraph as saying he didn’t like holidays as they upset the smooth running of the business – giving the example that if you take the normal working week, holidays and bank holidays, the average person works only 1,589 hours in the year out of a possible 8,760 hours – that is about 18 per cent of their time!

A good work ethic is something he’s clearly passed down to his children – along with his design DNA – as they have forged their own successful career paths in different areas of design. One can only imagine what the Christmas dinner table looks like with fashion designer, Jasper, interior designers, Sebastian and Sophie, and restaurateur, Tom! Together, this unofficial Conran empire dominates British design and is a worthy testament the patriarch who says he has ‘tried to live his life without regrets’. Hear, hear, Sir T, and we salute you for it!

Have a restful Christmas and New Year from all the team at T&L.

Jon Watt is editor of the Clapham & Battersea and Fulham editions of Time & Leisure Magazine.