 He published ten novels in all.Collins's political views were liberal and libertarian, but (in 1979) he was asked by Keith Joseph to join a Conservative party think tank chaired by John Hoskyns (who became Chief Political Adviser to Margaret Thatcher) to work on issues such as privatisation.Collins, though left of centre politically, always believed, in common with "classical liberals" such as Gladstone, that the free market is a superior means of distributing wealth than the state.