The nation should sit up and take notice. For whatever Britain is, whatever Britain became in the post-war years, owes more than it might imagine to this convivial cigar-smoking designer-entrepreneur. Conran has been shaping our tastes since the 1950s, and he shapes them still. You might think that, these days, it’s more to do with the way we go out to eat than the way we go out to shop - in 1990 he relinquished control of Habitat, the retail chain he founded in 1964 - but you’d be wrong.

The influence of Conran’s Habitat concept is enormous and pervasive and still virtually unchallenged in the High Street. Meanwhile the Conran aesthetic is relentlessly pursued through a continuing series of books (he co-owns the publishers, naturally), aimed fair and squarely at consumers. Our Terence has never been one for theorizing or manifesto statements. He’s one for direct, practical action. Handy hints. Cheap, well-designed furniture.

And sex. In his new question-and answer autobiography, the best - or at any rate the funniest - bits concern sex. Particularly good are the questions posed by Barry Humphries’ illustrious creation, the Australian ‘cultural attaché’, Sir Les Patterson. At one point, Sir Les suggests that, as a famed designer of beds, Conran must surely be used to quite a bit of mattress action. Conran does not disagree. Les further asks if he has ever indulged in after-hours sex with a trusted shop assistant. Conran’s one-word reply is “Yes”.