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Original poster

To be disturbed by this Jilly Cooper anecdote forcibly stripping clothes off a teacher at school?

31 replies

Jane379 · 08/05/2026 19:21

I was reading some articles on Jilly Cooper recently and was quite disturbed by this anecdote about her time at boarding school in the 1940s-50s: ' ‘We undressed Miss Harris, got her down to her petticoat, poor thing, and just jumped on her. She was wriggling on the floor like a fly. Poor woman! So we were punished and not allowed to have cake for tea that day!’

https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/magazines/essex/22628679.jilly-cooper-recalls-earliest-essex-memories/

  What? I suppose I find it really hard to believe since usually you read about awful treatment of students at schools like that, not the reverse. I suppose some schools must have been more lax then, assuming it's true. Poor woman, indeed...

Jilly Cooper recalls her earliest Essex memories

Hornchurch-born Jilly Cooper recalls her earliest Essex memories and reveals why she believes her books have become best sellers. Pamela Spencer…

https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/magazines/essex/22628679.jilly-cooper-recalls-earliest-essex-memories/

OP posts:
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ohyesido · 09/05/2026 17:34

Her books are full of explicit sexual assaults designed to titillate so that is unsurprising that she saw such an attack as jolly japes

Original poster
Jane379 · 09/05/2026 13:53

Ritasueandbobtoo9 · 08/05/2026 22:16

“It was the best of times, the worst of times.”

You can say that again! 40s surely not 'best' but 50s had better economy etc

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Original poster
Jane379 · 08/05/2026 22:43

In an interview from 8 years earlier, she sounds a bit more contrite :
'My three mates and I were terrible. It makes me blush to remember now that we de-bagged Miss Harris, our sweet junior housemistress. She was pretty but rather wet, and we took off her cardigan, her shirt, her tweed skirt and her shoes, and there she was, wriggling like a fly in her petticoat, when the housemistress caught us. I think our punishment was to be denied cake for a week.'

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/my-best-teacher-202

My best teacher

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/my-best-teacher-202

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Original poster
Jane379 · 08/05/2026 22:29

Celandines · 08/05/2026 22:12

Not being allowed cake for one day is a pathetic punishment for it. Probably got away with it due to having rich parents the school didn't want to upset. You'd have got a lot worse punishment in a state school then and now for that.

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Agree with this too.

I always thought Cooper came from an aristocratic family since those were the kinds of people she wrote about, but this doesn't seem to have been the case. Her family were apparently prominent figures in Yorkshire so maybe this had some influence in what sounds like a frankly hard to believe situation.

Unless it was a fantasy as pp suggested...I hope so. I can't imagine what a horrible experience it must have been if true ..

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Original poster
Jane379 · 08/05/2026 22:25

Wordsmithery · 08/05/2026 22:07

It sounds like a Lord of the Flies moment with feral children gone mad. Sadly it doesn't seem that JC ever held herself accountable for what must have been utterly terrifying and humiliating for that poor teacher.

This..!

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Ritasueandbobtoo9 · 08/05/2026 22:16

“It was the best of times, the worst of times.”

Celandines · 08/05/2026 22:12

Jane379 · 08/05/2026 21:51

Was this typical 1940s school behaviour??

If anything surely teachers were more likely to have more authority then? I don't think this would have been widely seen as ok.

After all, boarding school memoirs like Roald Dahl show pupils being the cowed ones.

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Not being allowed cake for one day is a pathetic punishment for it. Probably got away with it due to having rich parents the school didn't want to upset. You'd have got a lot worse punishment in a state school then and now for that.

Wordsmithery · 08/05/2026 22:07

It sounds like a Lord of the Flies moment with feral children gone mad. Sadly it doesn't seem that JC ever held herself accountable for what must have been utterly terrifying and humiliating for that poor teacher.

likelysuspect · 08/05/2026 21:55

Jane379 · 08/05/2026 20:47

Hardly pleasant for a teacher to get their clothes forcibly stripped off.. what job would expect you to tolerate that?

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No job now, the past is a different world. No teacher would be expecting that either then as children would have been seen as needing to be obedient, but lots of things happened in the 40s and 50s that are alien to us now

Original poster
Jane379 · 08/05/2026 21:51

Crushed23 · 08/05/2026 21:48

I’m not saying it’s in any way right, but it’s hard to get outraged about what some children did in the 1940s. It was a completely different world back then.

I think as a society we’re completely far removed from even the 1960s/70s, never mind the 1940s.

Was this typical 1940s school behaviour??

If anything surely teachers were more likely to have more authority then? I don't think this would have been widely seen as ok.

After all, boarding school memoirs like Roald Dahl show pupils being the cowed ones.

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Original poster
Jane379 · 08/05/2026 21:49

WiddlinDiddlin · 08/05/2026 21:27

Whilst I do not doubt for a second that such things DID happen..

With the benefit of having met and chatted with Jilly on several occasions (she was friends with a good friend of mine so these were social events not 'celebrity meets normal person' events)...

She was utterly, completely, wholly, barking mad, batshit crazy, loop the fucking loop.

And had been for a very very long time. 90% of what she recounted as having happened to her, happened to someone else, and she heard about it or was witness to it... she had a very creative, inventive mind, and spent most of her adult life with more than one foot in total fantasy land.

I was always curious as to what she was like pre Leo, i think a lot of the absolute batshittery was an escape from how awful he really was as a husband.

Interesting. Maybe this could be it... It's an odd anecdote to relate in such a light-hearted way, whether true or not.

She always spoke positively about her marriage publiclt, it's sad the reality was not as happy.

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Crushed23 · 08/05/2026 21:48

I’m not saying it’s in any way right, but it’s hard to get outraged about what some children did in the 1940s. It was a completely different world back then.

I think as a society we’re completely far removed from even the 1960s/70s, never mind the 1940s.

PrizedPickledPopcorn · 08/05/2026 21:46

Jane379 · 08/05/2026 21:27

He stripped a teacher? I hope not!

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No, but something really cruel about a house mistress, like using her cruel nickname to her face.

likelysuspect · 08/05/2026 21:45

WiddlinDiddlin · 08/05/2026 21:27

Whilst I do not doubt for a second that such things DID happen..

With the benefit of having met and chatted with Jilly on several occasions (she was friends with a good friend of mine so these were social events not 'celebrity meets normal person' events)...

She was utterly, completely, wholly, barking mad, batshit crazy, loop the fucking loop.

And had been for a very very long time. 90% of what she recounted as having happened to her, happened to someone else, and she heard about it or was witness to it... she had a very creative, inventive mind, and spent most of her adult life with more than one foot in total fantasy land.

I was always curious as to what she was like pre Leo, i think a lot of the absolute batshittery was an escape from how awful he really was as a husband.

Why give her a cop out. Perhaps she just was a horrible batty person.

Original poster
Jane379 · 08/05/2026 21:27

PrizedPickledPopcorn · 08/05/2026 21:02

Harry said something similar about his teachers at boarding school. I can’t remember what exactly. I didn’t read the book, but it was discussed here.

He stripped a teacher? I hope not!

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WiddlinDiddlin · 08/05/2026 21:27

Whilst I do not doubt for a second that such things DID happen..

With the benefit of having met and chatted with Jilly on several occasions (she was friends with a good friend of mine so these were social events not 'celebrity meets normal person' events)...

She was utterly, completely, wholly, barking mad, batshit crazy, loop the fucking loop.

And had been for a very very long time. 90% of what she recounted as having happened to her, happened to someone else, and she heard about it or was witness to it... she had a very creative, inventive mind, and spent most of her adult life with more than one foot in total fantasy land.

I was always curious as to what she was like pre Leo, i think a lot of the absolute batshittery was an escape from how awful he really was as a husband.

SwedishEdith · 08/05/2026 21:03

It was all the gushing about her adulterous husband that was nauseating. I know I would not have liked her in real life.

I remember her on a hair makeover programme where the hairdresser improved that haircut she had. But she didn't keep it up. I may be making this bit up but I'm sure it was because Leo didn't want her to change her hair style.

PrizedPickledPopcorn · 08/05/2026 21:02

Harry said something similar about his teachers at boarding school. I can’t remember what exactly. I didn’t read the book, but it was discussed here.

JuliettaCaeser · 08/05/2026 20:55

She was always one of those “dogs are better than people” types which I find sinister as they only say that because dogs can’t talk!

henlake7 · 08/05/2026 20:51

That is a proper posh person story. Isn't it?
I feel like trying that in a local comp would of gotten you beaten silly back in the day!

(I remember my mum telling me a story of a girl who swore at a female teacher back in the 50s. The teacher picked her up, threw her in the bin and walked off!😆)

Original poster
Jane379 · 08/05/2026 20:47

likelysuspect · 08/05/2026 19:27

Its just silly messing about that kids would do though, in a private school I suppose. You wouldnt get that down at the local comp!!!

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Hardly pleasant for a teacher to get their clothes forcibly stripped off.. what job would expect you to tolerate that?

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AppropriateAdult · 08/05/2026 20:46

Her books are horribly misogynistic, so this doesn’t surprise me at all.

Original poster
Jane379 · 08/05/2026 20:46

InterestingDuck · 08/05/2026 19:35

It might well have had no serious intent behind it at the time, but you'd think as an adult you'd reflect and think how awful that must have been for the teacher, to describe the woman 'wriggling like a fly' - it's not something I'd repeat other than perhaps in a context of 'horrible things I've done that I now regret'.

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Exactly.. she was 73 at this point so you'd expect a bit more than the sniggering way she seemed to still view it.

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likelysuspect · 08/05/2026 20:41

InterestingDuck · 08/05/2026 20:38

I'm not sure I ever did - I tend to avoid chat shows because they're normally just puff for whatever book/film/record the person is about to release. Sounds like I didn't miss anything!

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Yes you were lucky!!

She was always dragged out on This Morning or Wogan or such like, Pebble Mill that sort of thing. Yakking on about posh people and their affairs, money, horses, posh things.

I couldnt stand her.

InterestingDuck · 08/05/2026 20:38

likelysuspect · 08/05/2026 19:48

Did you never see her on any shows, thats how she spoke, thats how that type refer to things, they have a silly childish, jolly hockey sticks way of talking. Very matter of fact. Very horsey types I associate them with
I dont know what it was about her she annoyed me intensely whenever she popped up on chat shows. Awful.

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I'm not sure I ever did - I tend to avoid chat shows because they're normally just puff for whatever book/film/record the person is about to release. Sounds like I didn't miss anything!