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Original poster

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

164 replies

MamaGrr · 02/02/2007 12:29

...so why did I quiver over him as a teen, reading JC?

WHY?

OP posts:
WWWCampbellBlack · 04/02/2007 22:18

Agree, Pandora was better.

WWWCampbellBlack · 04/02/2007 22:17

True, I remember Leo had an affair and I think (though don't know) that she was devoted to him and was devastated.

turquoise · 04/02/2007 22:15

I think she completely lost it when she found out about her husband's affair, which was during the writing of The Man who made Husbands Jealous. All the fun went out of her novels from there on (although the one about a painting wasn't too bad).

Riders, Rivals and Harriet were my favourites.

Is Wicked the latest - the school one? The worst pile of shoite ever written, imo. Can't believe any publisher would have touched it if it had been offered by an unknown

WWWCampbellBlack · 04/02/2007 22:10

Well quite Norks, twas a stupid title.

WWWCampbellBlack · 04/02/2007 22:09

Pooka, agree, something quite unsavoury about a lot of Wicked.

NorksBrideOHara · 04/02/2007 22:05

Oh that reminds me. There's a woman the dead-spit of Jilly Cooper who lives about 1/2 mile away and we were introduced to her when we moved here. I thought it would be all sitting round her aga, sloshing back Chablis and gossiping like mad but she's really, really dull. It's so not fair!!!

NorksBrideOHara · 04/02/2007 22:02

I half-read Appassionata and failed to progress beyond the first chapter of another music one (?) - it all got too embarrassing really. I just couldn't bring myself to read a book entitled 'The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous'.

Rivals was fun though! Hackneyed old tosh, but fun! (Valerie Jones lives a few houses up the lane from us)

pooka · 04/02/2007 21:57

I also found Wicked pretty vile because JC seemed to jsut pass on all the sexual antics of the adult characters in the earlier books onto children at school. Felt that it wasn't sexy any more because the idea of 14 year olds shagging leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

My favourite JC book was Rivals - good balance of RCB being less chauvanistic, interesting characters and still fun. It all went downhill after Polo if you ask me.

NorksBrideOHara · 04/02/2007 21:51

Caitlin O'Hara is such a fabulous character I can't believe I didn't name one of my DDs after her. (Er, except it might have become public knowledge that one of our DCs literary names was actually from a Jilly Cooper).

Early books funny, later books dire. She really needed to ease up on the puns.

tribpot · 04/02/2007 20:58

It was - doh, my apologies to WWWCB. And you have done right in not reading it, it's all a bridge too far.

MrsJohnCusack · 04/02/2007 20:57

Wicked is the only Jilly Cooper I haven't read.
Felt it was all getting a bit silly and haven't got around to reading it yet

I think it was WWWCAmpbellBlack you meant not me?

tribpot · 04/02/2007 20:54

MrsJC, you are quite correct, I was attempting to confirm your assertion, not make it my own

Was anyone else faintly disturbed that in Wicked Jilly seemed to find it perfectly acceptable to describe a lesbian couple adopting as (basically) a crime against nature?! Not to mention the 13-year-old Bianca C-B having sex? It was all a bit much to cope with.

WWWCampbellBlack · 04/02/2007 20:52

he, not she wrt Rannaldini

WWWCampbellBlack · 04/02/2007 20:52

Hmm, I thought Appassionata was OK ish but not a patch on the others. Some good characters, never understood why anyone fancied Rannaldini, she sounded foul, as did Hermione. Not as bad a MWMHJ though

MrsJohnCusack · 04/02/2007 20:50

oh yes, I was always disappointed Archie and Caitline didn't feature again

I quite liked the first musicy one (Apassioniata) but Abby was dreadful - didn't care if she was happy at all (in fact would have been quite happy if she'd just succeeded in topping herself TBH)

the man who made husbands jealous was cack.

WWWCampbellBlack · 04/02/2007 20:47

Ah, there's a Bodkin House Hotel in Petty France in Glos, I used to drive past it on the way to grandparents.

WWWCampbellBlack · 04/02/2007 20:46

Ahem Tribot, I said Bodkin mere seconds ago! There's a place in Glos I think called Bodkin or something

tribpot · 04/02/2007 20:45

I think it was Bodkin, wasn't it? They all had 'help' who would inappropriately find vibrators in the style of Sex and the City's Miranda and Magda

Obviously these people don't do housework - the mere thought!

WWWCampbellBlack · 04/02/2007 20:44

My grandparents lived in The Cotswolds and we often drove past place names that resonated from Jilly Cooper novels.

tribpot · 04/02/2007 20:43

Rivals IS genius. I wish Archie and Caitlin had featured in a future book, they were brilliant.

WWWCampbellBlack · 04/02/2007 20:43

No, no, they had a daily, Mrs Bodkin or the like!

WWWCampbellBlack · 04/02/2007 20:42

Yes, I think Riders, Rivals and Polo are wonderful. The man who made husbands jealous is a pile of cack, she's back on form completely with Pandora imo and nearly hits with Wicked but like I say, I thought the sinister ending was Jilly trying to be up to the minute and actually managing Too Close to Real Life. Because I read Jilly for a lot of things, realism isn't one of them!

MamaCampbellBlack · 04/02/2007 20:42

I think my favourite thing about the books was that the best characters had amazing houses that they NEVER cleaned

MrsJohnCusack · 04/02/2007 20:40

that's right! Dame Enid Spink, the composer. and Tony's wife was called Monica

Rivals is my favourite really. That book is genius.

WWWCampbellBlack · 04/02/2007 20:40

I absolutely had it in my head that Cameron was black the first time I read it but she isn't. Weird.

"she only felt alive when she saw her name as the credits rolled" rofl