“I have lived so long in the world and so much at my own liberty that whosoever has me must be content to take me as they find me, without hope of making me other than I am.”

So wrote the remarkable Dorothy Osborne in the mid-17th century, to her faraway love William Temple. 

The tale of Dorothy and William’s relationship is told in a splendid new book by Jane Dunn, Read My Heart: A Love Story in England’s Age of Revolution. Both Dorothy and William refused to bend to the conventions of the time. They would marry for love and love alone. For seven years their families disapproved, throwing financial roadblocks and more “suitable” choices in their path — but the pair stayed faithful, relying on a constant back and forth of correspondence. Most of William’s letters have been lost, but at least 70 of Dorothy’s enchanting missives survive, and they reveal a complex, passionate, intellectual woman far ahead of her time. (She’d be a wOw blogger for sure!) This is history at its most vivid — smallpox, the Black Plague, the Great Fire of London, political intrigue, civil war — in an era where life expectancy, especially for women, was shockingly short. And a time when a female with a mind of her own, a quick tongue and brave enough to express herself, was rare indeed. Dorothy Osborne said “thanks but no thanks” to the bridge to nowhere that was 17th century oppression.

Read My Heart arrives in bookstores later this month. The determined, devoted lovers (who did indeed marry!) leap off the pages with a freshness and modernity that is poignant and inspiring. I recommend this book to undying romantics, history buffs and to all those exhausted by our current news cycle. 

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Speaking of remarkable British women, how about the divine Joan Collins?! I ran into Joan at the big Fete de Swifty event here in NY last week. (She’s touring the country with her one-woman show.) Joan looked like a million bucks and was as lively, witty, wicked as ever. Joan, now 74, insists — though I’d never ask her — she’s not had a smidgen of plastic surgery. (Everybody else asks!) That’s Joan’s story and she’s sticking to it. She’d sooner admit to murder than surgical maintenance. To be honest, it isn’t Joan’s still-firm face or trim figure that gives her a youthful glow. She has astonishing energy and, obviously, great good health. She still saunters about like a very young woman. Surgery and Botox can’t give you what Joan Collins has. It’s in her genes. (She also has a much younger, handsome and charming husband, Percy Gibson. That keeps her on her toes as well.)

Joan Collins and Liz © Brian L Colby for wowOwow

My favorite memory of Miss Collins was meeting up with her after a screening of a TV movie she did a few years back, “These Old Broads” with Shirley MacLaine, Debbie Reynolds and Elizabeth Taylor. In the movie, Joan, playing an actress desperate for a comeback, performs a musical number that required a full split. As we chatted, somebody came up to us and said, “Joan, darling, you were marvelous. But who did that split for you?”

Miss Collins’s beautiful face darkened, “Darling, nobody did anything for me. I did that.” 

“Joan, please …”

Folks, never contradict a true diva. Miss Collins tossed her little clutch purse on a table, shrugged off her luxurious fur shrug, hitched up her Chanel-style skirt and right then and there went into a full split. The room gasped. Even better, she got out of the split in one graceful, athletic movement. Joan picked up her purse, gathered her fur, and headed for the buffet table. 

It was one of the great moments, in a lifetime of celeb-watching.