Rene Ansell has amassed an amazing collection of stage and screen memorabilia over the years - but now she is selling the lot.

Rene, 77, has decided to part company with her hoard of signed photos and autographs.

She also has letters from the famous, including one from legendary crooner Bing Crosby.

Rene aims to sell her collection to a worthy fellow enthusiast before, as she puts it, she gets too old to appreciate them.

Among the stars Rene met were Errol Flynn, Fred Astaire, Bob Hope, Cary Grant, Gracie Fields and Cab Calloway. They all signed a personal message in her autograph books.

Also represented in her collection are sporting greats including Sugar Ray Robinson.

Rene keeps her collection at a secret location and brings it home on special occasions to show friends and family.

Each signature holds a sentimental memory for Rene, of Hove, who fondly remembers chasing stars around the big passenger ships to meet them.

She always tried to get their autograph while they waited for their departure at the old Southampton docks, opposite her childhood home.

Her father, Jack Marks, was a booking agent for all air and steamship lines and a handling agent for leading film, theatrical and sporting corporations.

He had offices in Southampton, Brighton and Jermyn Street, London.

One of Rene's favourite moments was the day she met her idol, Robert Taylor, who starred alongside Greta Garbo in the Hollywood classic Camille.

She said: "My father was meeting Don Ameche. I was on the gangway and I looked up and there he was, Robert Taylor. Of course I asked him for his autograph.

"I also met Fred Astaire. It was 4am and he was coming off one of the ships so my father introduced me.

"He was very charming. He just said, 'How are you?'. I was very little but it was so nice.

"I used to see them all in the movies at the time. It was a marvellous era. I stopped doing it when I was 16.

"It would be like meeting the pop stars of today but I don't like them. They all sound the same.

"My school friends loved it, especially one day when my father took the whole class on a tour of a ship to meet a crowd of entertainers."

Now Rene's memories are up for sale - but not to just any bidder.

She said: "I have had one offer for the Errol Flynn autograph but they would have to cut it out of my book, which is wrong. They should stay together."

The lure of the stage appealed to Rene from an early age and she became a singer, performing with her first big band at 13.

She sang for the troops several times during the Second World War and met Vera Lynn.

She now runs a fabric shop, Remnants in Blatchington Road, Hove, but still sings three nights a week with local jazz bands in pubs and clubs in Worthing, Sompting and Brighton. She also performed this summer at the Gay Pride event in Preston Park.