If you met Rupert Campbell=Black - you WOULD punch him on the nose and call him a wanker

I may do too NBOH! Or Polo maybe.

Just flipping through Rivals - the characters are great - the Jones, the Makepieces, the Verekers, Charles Fairburn (Old Queens Award for Lack of Industry), Mr & Mrs Bodkin, Henry Hampshire, Dame Enid Spink. Just loads!

Bugger it! I'm going to read it again!!!!

I agree about there being lots of unexplored characters - definitely the O'Hara Family, I'm a big fan of Basil Baddingham too, he has lots of potential.

Grrrrrr...Chessie in Polo.

god no, there are many things I would love to do to him, but punching him isn't one of them

Daisy is Perdita's mum, and it turns out she is Rupert's dd. Perdita has a child with Luke who she calls Eddie, ostensibly after Rupert's dad, having forgotten she has a brother of the same name ...

You won't sympathise with Chessy, trust me. I read it recently and she is a still a vain, silly tramp. I have to say, if one might inject a moment of seriousness, it's obvious from the writing that Jilly has never lost a child (and thank god for it) given how she writes Chessy.

Oh Xav of course, thank you.

Was Daisy the artist with the illegitimate dd? Who turns out to be, eek, someone like Ruperts but not Rupert?

I don't remember Eddie either. Gosh, I might have to re read Polo from a distance of 20 odd years or something. I'll probably sympathise with that Chessy a lot more than I did as a twentysomething!

I haven't read Wicked. Will probably get from library rather than buying

Definitely Luke Alderton.

Mmmmmm

Tragically not so far. Jilly could do a lot worse than resurrect some of her classic characters rather than inventing increasingly unbelievable new ones, I think! Rivals 2, the world calls out for it!

The best characters in Polo are Perdita's little brother, Eddie (taking the much coveted 'Caitlin' role) and Miss Lodsworth.

Do the O'Hara's turn up in any subsequent books? They are utterly fabulous!

Never warmed to Perdita. Selfish little trollop!
Daisy - too wishy washy. Grow a backbone! She had a vile husband too. Also not keen on Drew - think at one stage he shags Daisy, who is embarrassed at not having shaved/trimmed and says he likes it because he was a welsh guard and they're known as sheep-shaggers.
Also remember in Riders, Jake post-coitally wipes Tory with some hay. What a smoothie!

I gave up after score1 was so dire - but reading this a few of you rate pandora is it worth a go or not???

I'm with LucyJones - Luke would be my gent of choice (from Polo) but would have a daliiance with R C-B first.

InTheseShoes, they're Baddingham/Corinium by the paperback of Rivals as well.

Lord knows why Xavier isn't called Javier and Bianca isn't called Blanca - Jilly's extensive research clearly not extending to checking out what Spanish names are! (Mind you, maybe RCB and Taggie gave Bianca her name and merely thought it was Spanish?).

Polo doesn't seem to be getting much of a mention, I don't think it had a very inspiring cast and Perdita is just a pain.

WWWCB - Taggie and Ruperts adopted son is Xavier (Xav) - they also adopted Bianca at the same time.

retreats in embarrassment with the manuscript of "The Mumsnetters Guide to the Novels of Jilly Cooper" by InTheseSuitableForDivotStompingBetweenChukkasShoes

Loving this thread! Never finished Wicked - I'm a teacher and just spent most of the time saying 'God - that would never happen!' I mean, it's not like any of her other novels are real life but the school thing was just too close to home. I agree with the earlier posts saying that the teenage sex was just too much - I don't want to think of all my Yr 8s and Yr 9s in that context, thank you very much! I was sooooo disappointed by it.

I was forced to dig out Rivals last night after reading this thread - what a GREAT book! In my version, the Baddinghams are called the Bullinghams and Corinium TV is called Cotswold TV (it's a hardback first edition; somehow I think NOT going for a fortune at Sotheby's somehow) - this changes when they are referred to in Polo and the MWMHJ, I wonder why?

I really liked Appasionata and Score! I do agree that Abby is rather unsympathetic,as a character, but I like Flora, Viking anf the orchestra characters. Pandora is ok as well, got Wicked for my birthday and agree with others here - a bit unsavoury in parts and some lazy writing really. Hope it's a blip, as I love a good Jilly Cooper! One of my favourite parts of any of her books is the acknowledgement part at the beginning where she name drops as many famous people as possible, and seems to have done amazing amounts of research - one of my favourite of these is where she thanks someone from an orchestra for answering all her questions including "Would it be possible to bonk a small woman on a glockenspeil?"

Gosh, no. I'd rather be Taggie, wildly pretty, loved etc. Mind you, maybe not, she couldn't have children could she? They adopted a boy from Bogota, can't remember his name.

True - never understood why Tony was meant to be so attractive.

But Cameron Cook had to shag the Tony Baddingham for years. No job is worth that. Bleurgh!

Billy was too nice for my liking. Declan O'Hara though - yummy. Would have been happy to be Cameron Cooke - fling with RCB, one-nighter with Declan, end up with Patrick. As long as I was not required to get my body into her standard of physical perfection, or wear earrings the size of satellite dishes!

Christ I would rather poke myself in the eye with a shitty stick than go near Rupert C-B. I liked Billy though, what a sweetie.

Typical me
I preferred Taggie's Dad
Rupe was way to fuck em and chuck em for me
Billy Lloyd Fox too pussy whipped...
Scuse my very non Cotswoldy language btw

I agree that RCB gets much sexier as he gets older and when he falls for the adorable Taggie then you get to see him through her eyes, which is a lot more flattering.

He is kind as well, the way he seems to be giving away his money to everyone he knows in some kind of allowance.

When they adopt the little boy (can't remember his name) that is really endearing.

Poor JC, with the husband thing. I love her books.

ONly just seen this thread! OMG - lots of memories flooding back, yes I certainly would leap into bed with RCB!!!!

Haven't read books, but liked Riders, and Rivals, wasn't so struck on Polo - never really took to Ricky France-Lynch, not so keen on the others till Pandora which is great!

I think you are very right there Turquoise, I do think her husband's affair devasted her.
my sister used to work for JC's literary agent way back when, and met JC - who was exactly as you would imagine her, happily.

yes it all went downhill after Polo. Rivals is just the best though, my copy is falling to pieces because I've reread it so many times!