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Original poster

i just finished reading a (god help me) Jilly Cooper book...it was utter crapola

55 replies

purplemonkeydishwasher · 10/08/2007 21:39

and yet i continued to read it. page after page. chapter after agonizing chapter. I read it all. the whole time thinking: "where the hell is this stupid meandering story going?" and in the end i wasn't disappointed....it ended as poorly as it began. (it was called Wicked! BTW. her exclamation point, not mine)

took me forever too, and I'm a fast reader. that's a week i'll never get back.

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purplemonkeydishwasher · 11/08/2007 21:50

tribpot - I TOTALLY agree with you.

"Plus the fact that she has so ridiculously many characters now, it's impossible to remember who the hell everyone is." --Turquoise - I think that's why she has the list and description of characters at the beginning of the book.
I had to refer to it quite often!!

OP posts:
stleger · 11/08/2007 20:34

She needs a really bossy editor who will chop about 200 pages out, and advise her that some topics can't be treated in a lighthearted way. (I suspect Jilly might not take advice though!)

WideWebWitch · 11/08/2007 20:33

Well, it's still Gloucestershire, basically, there's still lots of "hedgerows and garlic with its rank sexy stench" but new characters. I think she's trying to make Hengist the new Rupert but she can't top him (RCB) really.

ShinyHarryPplHoldingPortkeys · 11/08/2007 20:32

Oh bugger any classist attitudes that demand that you might be "chavvy" (or whatever ) if you like JC.. it's my post-holiday resolution to NOT give a feck, ever again, what the Mumsnet hoi-poloi think we should or should not be liking lest we be considered lower class!

Turquoise · 11/08/2007 20:31

Me too WWW - I bought the hardback in high hopes that Pandora meant she was on the up again. Wrong.

WideWebWitch · 11/08/2007 20:29

Me too, I bought Wicked in hardback, not knowing it would be dreadful. I know lots of clever and literary peolpe who love JC, we're not alone!

ShinyHarryPplHoldingPortkeys · 11/08/2007 20:29

So is it a totally new set of characters? No more "Rutshire" or wherever it was?

tribpot · 11/08/2007 20:26

Having read 'Bestseller' by Olivia Goldsmith, I definitely see comparisons between Jilly and the author in that (Susan Baker Edmonds) that they've bought in for the power of her backlist of titles, but her current stuff is just utter tripe. Despite their best efforts, they can't turn the latest one into anything half-decent but have to publish in the hopes of her die-hard fans (i.e. me) buying the latest one regardless of content.

WideWebWitch · 11/08/2007 20:26

I despised the head teacher for sleeping with Hengist too.

Turquoise · 11/08/2007 20:23

Apart from the fact that it's so distasteful and badly researched, it's also just plain idiotic - all that nonsense about the Sunday Times etc covering school rugby matches. Plus the fact that she has so ridiculously many characters now, it's impossible to remember who the hell everyone is.

Just utter rubbish, not even in an enjoyably so bad it's good way.

WideWebWitch · 11/08/2007 20:21

It was really quite shocking, yes. I'm surprised no one stopped her

tribpot · 11/08/2007 20:20

I did see the TV version and it was utter pants. Fortunately I have since cast it out of my mind, as it was totally unworthy of having anything to do with La Jilly.

ShinyHarryPplHoldingPortkeys · 11/08/2007 20:19

It sounds vile!

WideWebWitch · 11/08/2007 20:18

Totally agree with your post

WideWebWitch · 11/08/2007 20:18

YES tribpot, she was out of her comfort zone and writing about stuff she knows NOTHING about, absolutely, with Wicked. The paedophilia stuff was really vile.

I didn't see the tv version, thank god, Rupert CB HAS to stay the way I see him in my head.

tribpot · 11/08/2007 20:16

It's not so much the style as the content. Teachers shagging pupils. Every 13-year-old is sexually active. Paedophiles and quite astonishing ignorance (she has the Muslim mum get pissed at a party and the Muslim dad have a flutter on the gee-gees). This is not Jilly territory, it should all be poshos having orgies and carefully-observed satire of the middle classes. And horses.

ShinyHarryPplHoldingPortkeys · 11/08/2007 20:16

Ah yes, that's right.

Rupert Campbell Black getting ever more old and lecherous, but still liked reading about him in the background of these later novels. Think I fell for him in Riders.. and even the televised version with the actor that looked the part but couldn't act and made a mockery of all JC's one liners didn't change my feelings for him

Has JC really gone to pot??!

WideWebWitch · 11/08/2007 20:13

Artist family was Pandora

ShinyHarryPplHoldingPortkeys · 11/08/2007 20:12

Last one I read was one of the later Riders ones.. the one about the artist family.. that was good.

How is the style different then?

fishie · 11/08/2007 20:08

ooh i have it on to read pile. from library so no investment. poor jilly, emily and prudence so good.

WideWebWitch · 11/08/2007 20:03

And I think you might have a point Turq, I think Man who made husbands jealous was her first bum note and it kind of went a bit wrong from thereon in, with the poss exception of Pandora, which wasn't too bad.

WideWebWitch · 11/08/2007 20:00

Yes MT

tribpot · 11/08/2007 19:59

fruittea - to each their own of course. Have you read Jilly's earlier books?

fruittea · 11/08/2007 18:37

Cotton wool's good for me at this time of year. Ideal mindless beach read.

Rach35 · 11/08/2007 18:36

Yes - and it's not a hugely stiumulating read - it is like cotton wool for the brain. If you know it's gonna be naff then it can be quite fun..... (and boy .... is it naff) Just don't expect a literary masterpiece!