Jackie Collins: Shining a light on Hollywood's glitterati

The World is Full of Married Men was Jackie's first book

Jackie Collins, who has died from cancer at the age of 77, epitomised the glamour which she wrote about in such salacious detail, chronicling the lives and loves of Hollywood's glitterati.

And the old adage that "sex sells" was certainly true for Collins, as she went on to sell more than 500 million books in 40 countries.

Although primarily marketed to women, she insisted that there was a 50% split between female and male readers, with the majority of those asking for autographs through her website being men.

She started writing fiction while at school in London, selling steamy stories to her classmates, before she was expelled.

It did her no harm.

Her first novel, The World is Full of Married Men, was published in 1968 and was a bestseller that was banned in Australia.

She followed this up with The Stud, a tale of family betrayal and double-crossing set in the throbbing world of high-end nightclubs.

The book was turned into a hugely successful film, which starred sister Joan Collins in the lead role of Fontaine, a role she credited with reviving her career.

The film, which featured the memorable scene of Joan naked atop a giant swing above a swimming pool, had to be cut before release in many countries or was outright banned because of its explicit nature.

Jackie Collins went on to write a sequel, The Bitch, was also starred her big sister. Both films proved commercial successes but were sneered at by critics.

On Desert Island Discs in 1986 Jackie Collins described why she thought her books were so popular.

She said: "People are aware of my books and they imagine - if they haven't read me - that they're these huge sexy blockbusters with sex on every page, as one reviewer said.

"But actually what they are is they're very funny - intentionally funny. They're cynical and they're a light-hearted kind of send-up of Hollywood and I also create very strong female characters and women absolutely love my female characters."

Joan and Jackie, with Jackie's eldest daughter Tracey

Jackie Collins wed Wallace Austin in 1960, divorcing four years later

Romance novelist Barbara Cartland was scathing about Collins' novels, calling them "evil".

In a memorable exchange on the Wogan chatshow in 1987, Cartland launched into an attack on Collins' genre of fiction, asking "have you ever thought about the effects on young children?" and "don't you think it's helped perverts?".

Collins managed to keep good-humoured throughout the tirade and said she thought there was room for both their brands of fiction.

She added: "I really don't think there's anything disgusting about naked people rolling around on beds. I thought that was what you were supposed to do."

Although born in London, Collins relocated to Los Angeles to be among the wealthy and glamorous people she wrote about.

"I'll go to the huge parties and watch people and and be a spider just crawling from table to table. I'm just watching what's going on and I can go home and write about it just tongue-in-cheek," she recently told the BBC.

Fending off criticism of her characters just being cliches, she said: "The strange thing in life is that everybody is a cliche in Los Angeles.

"You've got the blonde with a huge boobs, you go to a Beverly Hills hotel and there they are loitering in the lobby, when you see the guy with the Ferrari who's the player. They are all crazy characters."

Despite being a naturalised American, with a dual British passport, she never forgot her roots and was made an OBE in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to fiction and charity.

Among her most successful novels were her Hollywood and Santangelo series.

The Santangelo series began in 1981 with Chances, followed up by eight other books revolving around the same family.

Speaking recently about the central character Lucky, she said: "I wanted to create a woman who was really strong and bold and ballsy.

"I wanted someone who could do everything a man could do. Lucky is this incredible character that women absolutely love.

Less than two weeks before her death, Collins was in the UK to promote the final book in the series, The Santangelos, making numerous TV and radio appearances, looking as glamorous as ever and giving no hint as to her ill health.

She even spoke about dealing with the aftermath of those close to her dying. Her second husband, Oscar Lerman, her fiance, Frank Calcagnini, and her mother had all died from cancer.

She told the Press Association: "I refuse to mourn people, because everybody dies. Death and taxes, you can't avoid either."