Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
Original poster
Jane379 · 08/05/2026 20:06

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.

Show quote history

Yes, exactly.

I actually came across this anecdote first when I was reading a book by a child psychotherapist about bullying (Don't Pick On Me by Rosemary Stones). Interesting book. Anyway, one section quoted Cooper as saying, 'We bullied Jennifer because she was fat and Enid because she had large breasts at 11 years old', then talking about stripping this poor teacher.
The book didn't include citations and I can't find this elsewhere so it could be fake but the teacher incident is substantiated by this interview. Certainly one would hope she regretted any bullying though the interview I quoted doesn't sound very regretful.

My mother remembers one girl from a wealthy family feeling entitled to bully a teacher into leaving the classroom in tears after weeks (private girls' day school in the 80s, for comparison) so I wonder if there could have been a similar dynamic where the school were maybe intimidated by parents...

OP posts:
likelysuspect · 08/05/2026 19:48

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'.

Show quote history

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.

InterestingDuck · 08/05/2026 19:35

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!!!

Show quote history

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'.

likelysuspect · 08/05/2026 19:27

InterestingDuck · 08/05/2026 19:23

Yes, that is disturbing. If it was something I'd done I wouldn't be recounting it as an anecdote, I'd be ashamed.

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!!!

InterestingDuck · 08/05/2026 19:23

Yes, that is disturbing. If it was something I'd done I wouldn't be recounting it as an anecdote, I'd be ashamed.

likelysuspect · 08/05/2026 19:23

I never could stand her or her type.

Its the sort of world she's from, probably loads of them like her.