Novelist Jackie Collins dies

Jackie Collins

Jackie Collins, whose 32 novels were written originally in longhand with a felt tip pen that probably sizzled over what it produced in the way of racy sex, died Saturday in Beverly Hills, California. She was 77, another victim of breast cancer.

Her full name was Jacqueline Jill Collins when she was born in London.

Her sister, actress Joan Collins, dipped into sizzling sex, too, on ABC’s long-running “Dynasty” series.

An assistant entered her flawless handwriting into a computer for novels that sold more than 500 million copies. They included “Hollywood Wives,” “The World Is Full of Married Men,” “The Santangelos” (9 novels about a family connected to organized crime).

Romance novelist Barbara Cartland called Collins’ work “disgusting filth,” but in 2013, Queen Elizabeth II awarded Collins the Order of the British Empire for services to fiction and to charity.

The Collins family suggested donations be sent to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Organization (in the U.S.) and Penny Brohn Cancer Care (in the U.K.).