Shelf Life: Joan Collins

Fleur Macdonald

Wednesday, 11th January 2012

This week's Shelf Lifer is the indefatigable Joan Collins. She tells us which literary character she'd pick to share a bed with and exactly how many self-help books she's written.

What are you reading at the moment?

Frank Sinatra: The Boudoir Singer by Danforth Prince and Darwin Porter

As a child, what did you read under the covers?

Forever Amber by Kathleen Windsor

Has a book ever made you cry, and if so which one?

Yes, Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist when Bill Sikes murders Nancy because it's the most harrowing description of a murder that I’ve ever read

You are about to be put into solitary confinement for a year and allowed to take three books. What would you choose?

Gone With the Wind, Samuel Pepys' Diaries and War and Peace, and then I'd stare at the wall for the other half of the year.

Which literary character would you most like to sleep with?

Rhett Butler for sheer macho magnetism

If you could write a self-help book, what would you call it?

I’ve written four already, the latest being The World According to Joan

Michael Gove has asked you to rewrite the GCSE English Literature syllabus. Which book, which play, and which poem would you make compulsory reading?

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, The Skin Of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder and The Desiderata by Max Ehrmann. The Americans would get very high grades!

Which party from literature would you most like to have attended?

Jay Gatsby's White Party

What would you title your memoirs? 

I’ve written two so the next one would be called A Passion For Life

Which literary character do you dream of playing?

Scarlett O'Hara

What book would you give to a lover? 

The Joy Of Sex

Spying Mein Kampf or Dan Brown on someone's bookshelf can spell havoc for a friendship. What's your literary dealbreaker?

It wouldn't really: people have eclectic tastes and curiosity.

Fleur Macdonald is editor of The Omnivore

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