When I was fifteen I had that poster of you on my bedroom wall – along with many others of my favourite, Marilyn Monroe.

Since then I’ve read hundreds of books on you (and boy are there a lot). I think I own about fifty or so including the fabulous catalogue of your private possessions, auctioned at Christie’s in 1999. Pity I couldn’t have been there, but it must have been a sad day when people eagerly bid for every small piece of your life from the book you read (and scribbled on) as a five year old to your dog licence (which, I recall, went for an awfully high price).

The clothes of course are my favourites – the glittery red heels you wore in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”, the long blue gown you gaffer-taped up so the troops in Korea could see your legs better. The silk souffle piece of nothing you were sewn into, to sing for a President.

Still the greatest – happy birthday wonderful, golden lady. You’ll always be in my heart (and my bookshelf).