LOS ANGELES (AP) — The novels of Jackie Collins dramatized the lives of the most elite people and places, but they were read by everyone, everywhere – from airports to beaches to, sometimes, under the covers with a flashlight to hide from disapproving parents and partners.
Collins, whose books like “Hollywood Wives” were as brazenly sexual as they were proudly pulpy, sold hundreds of millions of novels in dozens of countries, and it led to a level of wealth, celebrity and glamour that in many ways surpassed her own characters, and arguably matched that of her older sister, “Dynasty” actress Joan Collins.
Collins died at age 77 of breast cancer in Los Angeles, her publicist Melody Korenbrot said.
Collins’ tales of sex, glamour, power and more sex were a forerunner to the culture of “Desperate Housewives” and “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.” Her books provided at first more than some wanted to hear, but she became the kind of author from whom readers could never get enough, providing forbidden fodder for housewives and for teenagers raiding their parents’ bookshelves.
Collins told The Associated Press in a 2011 interview that she “never felt bashful writing about sex.”
“As a writer, you can never think about who is going to read your books,” she said.
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