PASSION FOR LIFE by Joan Collins

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This is a sumptuously produced second volume of autobiography from the indefatigable Collins, who toured Australia in recent years with her extremely entertaining one-woman stage show. Joan is very engaging and the stories of her adventures on film sets around the world, her friendships, triumphs and near disasters could fill many books. Here she relates encounters with the likes of Princess Diana and Arnold Schwarzenegger, shares more revealing anecdotes about the fascinating people she has met during her lifetime, and also gives her version of her courtship and marriage to Percy Gibson. This fifth marriage caused a considerable scandal as Gibson is 32 years her junior and he left his wife for Joan. The book follows on from where her previous memoir Second Act left off and is filled with never-beforeseen images: from childhood to recent holiday snaps with Percy and her children. This is the ultimate illustrated guide to the life of a British icon.