Photograph: Jackie Collins, 1964. © Pierluigi Praturlon/Reporters Associati & Archivi/Mondadori Portfolio/Bridgeman Images For a woman so associated with sex and decadence, Jackie Collins’ day-to-day routine would have surprised many of her fans. She worked, writing in longhand with a black felt-tip pen, every day until her death in 2015. She went to bed early. She filed promptly. According to Suzanne Baboneau, managing director of Simon & Schuster UK and Collins’ line editor since 1980, she “knew the value of a deadline, and always delivered a wonderfully clean manuscript.” Although Collins—with her Armani pantsuits, her panther-bedecked desk, and her iconic house designed to look like David Hockney’s A Bigger Splash—epitomized Hollywood glamour to so many, she was in fact a hardworking Brit who, as Baboneau puts it, had “a real morality about her.” This story is from Kinfolk Issue Thirty-Four Buy Now Related Stories Arts & Culture Issue 43 Amia Srinivasan Amia Srinivasan on the philosophy of sex. Arts & Culture Issue 31 Peer Review: Anaïs Nin Laura Waddell on Anaïs Nin: the erotic novelist and patron saint of over-sharers. Arts & Culture Issue 29 Peer Review: Barbara Pym Daniel Mallory Ortberg, author of The Merry Spinster, praises the caustic wit of mid-century novelist Barbara Pym. Arts & Culture Issue 26 Siri Hustvedt The novelist discusses memory, our need for community and why art matters. Arts & Culture Issue 51 Emily Gernild The Danish painter breathing new life into an old medium. Arts & Culture Food Issue 51 Imogen Kwok The artist takes food styling quite literally, creating accessories out of fruits and vegetables.
Arts & Culture Issue 31 Peer Review: Anaïs Nin Laura Waddell on Anaïs Nin: the erotic novelist and patron saint of over-sharers.
Arts & Culture Issue 29 Peer Review: Barbara Pym Daniel Mallory Ortberg, author of The Merry Spinster, praises the caustic wit of mid-century novelist Barbara Pym.
Arts & Culture Issue 26 Siri Hustvedt The novelist discusses memory, our need for community and why art matters.
Arts & Culture Food Issue 51 Imogen Kwok The artist takes food styling quite literally, creating accessories out of fruits and vegetables.