Terence: The Man Who Invented Design

‘A terrific read, bubbling with anecdotes and insight’ Daily Mail, 2021’s best biographies

‘Bayley, the author of books on style, design and taste, tells the Habitat story with his customary polycultural panache … [Mavity is] good at conveying the experience of being in a room with Conran’ Sunday Times

Terence Conran, a visionary and a myopic. A design entrepreneur and imaginative restaurateur, he was a democratising idealist who was also a selfish hedonist. His influence is everywhere in modern Britain from where we live to what we eat.

Terence: The Man Who Invented Design is the most definitive, intimate and revelatory biography of this design legend, by two of his closest collaborators, Roger Mavity and Stephen Bayley. Frank, amusing, indiscreet, sharp, rude, respectful and knowing, it tells Terence’s story as it evolved, from before Habitat’s humble chicken brick to Bibendum’s sophisticated poulet de Bresse, via personal successes and corporate calamities, culminating in that peculiar temple to the religion he invented: The Design Museum. It celebrates Terence’s genius and immeasurable impact on British life - and ensures his rightful status as national treasure. Terence: The Man Who Invented Design is the most candid, up-close insight into the man and myth.