To be really annoyed at Jilly Cooper

[bettybigballs]

Re-reading my jilly's from teenage years. I am not entirely enjoying Ridesrs. how had I missed:

1. Tory - totally written off as 'heft' as she is, god forbid 11 stone. She only becomes of value once she's lost loads of weight and poisoned herself because she's heartbroken.
2. Helen. Oh god, Helen I hate you. You give up ALL of your values to get with rupes, then holy mother of schizzle you put up with infidelity and him hating your child, BLAMING YOURSELF, and carrying on the norm for years.
3. Billy. You're a totally twat for going back to janey.

thurlow

I LOVED LOVED Dino too!!!!!

Janey is fun, but Lizzie Vereker is fun and nicer. Have you noticed how the most interesting female characters are writers?

Never got the attraction of RCB. But I am common.

Thanks TSSDNCOP. Hmmm...the instant gratification of kindle for iPad vs the satisfying heft of a big bonk buster library book...

I'd do RCB. But I'd have to go back in time to the 80s first. He'd probably be about 70 by now.

me neither , even as a young un I could see RCB was an abusive wanker

and that latest one, about the older lady and her horse, DULL wimpy woman

but i liked janey, she had balls
hated Perdita, and RCBs spoilt daughter

and RCB was so mean to his gay son, arsehole.

Wasn't Rupert based on Camilla's ex??
I loved the descriptions of Daisy's cottage in Polo,and how the female characters always cut their fringes with kitchen scissors and become beautiful after losing weight!

kitchen scissors with bacon on them!

Nope, even as a teenager I found all the characters horrible!

Can't understand people going soppy over Ricky - he got pissed and killed his son through drunk driving. Then spends the rest of the novel portrayed as some sort of noble hero who has had something bad happen to him, rather than someone who has done something terrible. Urgh.

With you on Ricky balloonslayer. Worst start to an escapist book ever.

I get wound up by her persistent portrayal of bf as an evil passive aggressive hippy plot to make adoptive mothers feel bad, which always backfires on the hippys in question because it makes them look ugly .

Yes, but Ricky was soooo fit...

Yup, with you on the Ricky thing. Oh, poor thing, he killed his child

I love Jilly Cooper, but the accents....

Pakistani, Argentinian, French....it'z all zee same accent...

There is sooo much wrong with the books, but I love them with all my heart, up to man wmhj, maybe appassionata at a push. Actually, Score was quite good too.

I can quote from them!

One of the things that, worryingly, stuck in my mind was how many times women are "wiped clean" with things like hay and newspaper

Obviously use of condoms was not rife!

Glad some people agree. I seem to remember that he starts drinking again, eventually, as well. Because they REALLY had something to celebrate.

I didn't like the character of Chessie, thought she was a cow, but she seems to get blamed for Ricky being an alcoholic, and for him killing the little boy, ie what an absolute BITCH for taking all the photos of the child out of the house and not leaving any for poooooooor Ricky.

I never liked Polo when I read it when it came out because of that, and because Perdita was so incredibly obnoxious, and because of of the treatment of poor gang-raped Daisy. Everyone on MN seems to love it so I re-read it a couple of years ago and hated it just as much, for all the same reasons. Just goes to show I haven't changed much in 20 years!

One of my fave books ever was by Jilly C - I read it at about 17 and it has stayed with me since - it was called Imogen - and I really related to the character and wished I was she...was terribly old fashioned and sexist even then.

I have read Polo twice. How do I not remember a Jilly Cooper gang rape scene??

Mrsfruitcake I recently read Octavian from the same era. Bitchy it girl gets spanked and tamed by burly welsh man

Stupid iPhone. Octavia.

Fuck off 11 stone is massive! I'm 11 stone and 5'7" - i run half marathons and am a total babe, frankly. Jilly's weight parameters were all always totally out of whack unless all the female characters were 5'2".

The rape scene isn't actually in the book, it all comes out years later that Daisy got drunk and was given drugs by her art teacher lover and then he let all the blokes at the party 'have a go' at her. Nice bloke.

Ah Jilly...bringing it all back. And they didn't sleep for a week, then knocked back some mogadon (?) and awoke refreshed 36 hrs later...sounds like bliss quite frankly!

and RCB was so mean to his gay son, arsehole.

Sorry, had to laugh at this. Couldn't help thinking what a terrible name to give a child .