Jilly Cooper says Jackie Collins' decision to keep cancer battle a secret was a 'mark of her splendour'

The romantic novelist paid a moving tribute to her fellow writer, who has died of breast cancer aged 77

Jilly Cooper has paid a moving tribute to fellow writer Jackie Collins.

The romantic novelist said Jackie's decision to keep her breast cancer battle a secret was a "mark of her splendour".

Best-selling author Jackie passed away at her home in Los Angeles on Saturday after a six-year battle with the disease, which she had kept hidden from the public and even her close family and friends. She was 77.

Jilly, who is also famed for her saucy fiction, described her friend as "so brave ... so articulate and amazing".

The 78-year-old told LBC radio: "She was absolutely marvellous, she was lovely. She was a very, very good writer.

"She lived in Hollywood, she knew what she was writing about and she just unashamedly wrote about the high life, and people loved it."

Cooper said that a great strength of Collins' writing was telling stories of characters who had come from nothing and made good, and said her favourite novel by Collins was Hollywood Lives, which lifted the lid on the love lives of women in the town and was made into a television series.

Cooper said: "Everybody is so dingy and politically correct now, and she didn't care, she just wrote what she liked about."