Hollywood Wives

"Yes, Hollywood Wives was one of her biggest hits. Hollywood Wives is, I would say, the closest thing to my books. It’s about Hollywood wives who are being left behind because their husbands are cheating. It’s about how these women re-empower themselves to get back on top and become the winners and either leave their husbands and take everything they’ve got or if they keep them, they’re the ones who are in control. They then become the powerhouses, and that is the moral of the story. These women don’t have to sit back and take it. We’re following a complete and utter pattern with these books. It’s funny how you don’t realize there is a theme until you start talking about them. Yes. Jilly’s is rural, and the sex is outrageous. Bonking in a hay barn is the equivalent of bonking in a penthouse in Manhattan—it’s just as extreme. I have had sex in a penthouse, but not a hay barn…I haven’t had that moment in a little village somewhere with the gorgeous Lysander. It’s on my list. The sex is explicit in all of them. Jilly Cooper sent me a card when I had a hit with Ruthless Women, saying, ‘Welcome to the bonking club.’ It’s like an official accreditation. Also, I only found out after she died, but apparently she said that I write just like her, only filthier. And I guess I would, because I’m a new generation. I also got an endorsement from Jackie Collins’s daughters, because I dedicated my book to her. I actually met Jackie, maybe nine days before she died. I got asked to write the foreword for Jackie’s reissues. That was a school-girl dream come true! The book that I read at school that made me believe that I could do all this has now got my name on it and my words next to hers. It’s crazy, isn’t it? These books are of their time. That’s their charm. My books are more outrageous because mine are of my time. I’ve lived and worked in the same places these books were based in. I’ve lived in the cutthroat, backstabbing, shagging, cheating world of show business for 25 years. I’ve been at the coalface in front of everything. I’ve seen it all. They say write about what you know, and I did."