RiP Jilly Cooper

[Daphnedot]

So bloody sad 😢

I absolutely adored JC and her books, she seemed like a lovely lady and Riders etc saw me through some tough times in an unhappy childhood. She was the Tolstoy of the Shires!!

However while it is very very sad (especially for her family) I think that a quick death at 88 in your own home while enjoying a career resurgence is massively preferable to the sad and slow decline and health issues I see in family that are a similar age. She seemed to still be out and about and working until recently.

Hope that's not an inappropriate thing to say but what struck me through the sadness.

You say Tolstoy, I say a modern Jane Austen!. I say it slightly tongue in cheek tbh but actually she is a very clever (and funny) social commentator, like JA! I wonder how she will last over the next century. I’ll certainly be reading her!

Gutted - love Jilly. Have just finished a re-read of Rivals. Her social commentary was razor sharp.

She taught me a lot and I wish I could still have learned more 😥

It shouldn't be a shock, given that she was 88, but it still is. Just good to know that she was out and about until very recently, so didn't have a long decline.

Like many others, I grew up with Jilly. Even though I'm not a horsey or country person, I loved those Rutshire novels. The early romances are fun, but from a different time.
And her journalism and non-fiction was great too - I must have read "Class" a dozen times - it was wickedly spot on.
And, yes, she's known for the sexy cads etc, but she was actually a better writer than she's given credit for - her descriptions of the English countryside are beautiful.

RIP Dame Jilly..... I hope there is champagne in heaven.

She was a legend.

Rivals - edges into first place - just.
Polo.
Riders
The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous.

I’ve returned to her books many times over the years since I first picked up Bella aged 14. Underrated as a descriptive writer about the English countryside. And gardens, clothes, food, houses etc. And a genius at animal names.
Very Sad news.

I will re-read The Common Years this weekend. It would be lovely to think she’d left more diaries but I think she said not.

Riders was one of the “illicit” books I read in my granny’s house at far too young an age. RIP Jilly. Thanks for all the shagging and champagne.

RIP Jilly.
I first read Riders at 15, and over 30 years later still re-read them. I’ve read all her books. What a legend!

I’m really sad about this. I knew another Rutshire book was a long shot but I still hoped. Very sad I never got to meet her although I did see her and some of the Rivals cast talk about it last year which was brilliant. Such a shame she never got to see series 2 completed.

Loved her books, fabulous Jilly.

She was a brilliant writer, particularly about the English countryside.I always think of her whenever I'm out in the woods and smell wild garlic.

I shall go and drench myself in Diorissimo, and put my navy blue towels in the bathroom, in tribute.

She was something of a national treasure. I can remember loving her books when I was a teenager.

She was absolutely my favourite author in my late teens early 20s. RIP. Might go and reread Octavia, Imogen, Prudence etc

One of the best descriptive writers of the countryside and of fun. Thanks Jilly, for all
the times like @Lobsterteapot that your books were the mental hot bath and chocolate I needed x

I’ll certainly toast her too. I’m glad she got to see a decent adaptation of rivals before she went!

terrible for her family

Not a bad way to go at 88 though - much better than months or years of cancer or dementia…

I never read any of her novels, but her book "Class" was a classic and essential reading if you want to understand how British society works!

I loved her book "Appassionata" about the Rutminster Symphony Orchestra. I'm in the classical music world and although the book sounds a bit like an over the top farce, it's actually very close to the truth. Absolute loved it and laughed all the way through. I think it's time to read it again.

I'm so so sad about this, I love, love, love her. Loved 😰

Such a shame - love Jilly Cooper and I was so happy when Rivals was such a success on Disney 😊 My first and favourite book is Polo which I read when I was 12/13. I’ve learned everything I know about posh people, horses, polo and classical music from Jilly 😊

Too many icons gone recently, Maggie Smith, Patricia Routledge, and now Jilly, or Jolly Sooper, as Private Eye called her…😰

Oh, that’s so so sad! I met her on the train in the early 2000s. I was travelling with my Mum first class and Jilly was sitting opposite us. We were talking in our native Hungarian language (my Mum doesn’t speak English). Jilly asked us what language we were speaking and we started chatting. She said she was just writing a book where the heroine was Romanian. She was really lovely, kind and down to earth. Rest in peace Jilly! 💛🤍💛

Loved watching her on the cooking programmes of the 90s. Everything you needed to know about wine, she knew it all and what bottle goes with what dish.

RIP Jilly.

I love all JC books and like many PP, have read and re-read them many times over the past 45 years. Although the quality of writing of her last couple of Rutshire Chronicles declined I am pleased that she never had to write about RCB dying and left him at the end of the last book happy on the terrace, finally appreciating Taggie and everything he had

RIP Jilly - truly one of the greats xx

I attended a talk of hers years ago when she had just written a book about animals in service during the war. it was a very emotive talk, and several times she burst into tears, which made me see her as a very genuine, compassionate lady.
Her early racy novels, each named after a girl, were some I read as a teenager under cover, as my mum would not have been pleased!
With Patricia Routledge, Una Stubbs, and Jilly Cooper, three great ladies have been lost