Jilly Cooper time

[Disabrie22]

It’s that time of year again - when I want to be a character in a Jolly Cooper novel - and only eat orange and steak for a week so I can squeeze into a too tight dress with a stain I’ve artfully covered with a brooch, after I have drenched myself in scent so I can get off with a dangerous drunk mysterious man who is loaded with cash and will whip me away to San Tropez, where I will only have an old bathing dress with moth in the seat which I keep falling out of. There I will meet a loveable old lech covered in Man Tan and flirt wildly while getting tight after too much gin.

@lulujakey @lamblossom the Crown and Cushion is absolutely spot on

Jillys are full of tooth mugs! Never hear that anywhere else 😂

I love all of them, even Pandora and jump!!

But recently I have discovered a new writer, who while never being jilly is providing a rich seam of new utterly ridiculous characters and plots.
Her name is Rebecca chance and her books with thinly veiled parodies of our Royal family are the next best thing after a jilly...
There is lots of dashing hero's and reliable dogs and daft plots.
I'd recommend

I love all of JC’s earlier work and my kindly downturned eyes have been twinkling with merriment whilst reading this thread. At one point I even let out an explosive volley of farts. Too shame-making !

So, I fell in love with this guy who turned out to be my half-brother because his dad had an affair with my mum.

But then it transpired that his mum had also had an affair so our dad wasn't his dad after all.

Hooray!

wellbeehivedwoman I have a 'tooth mug', at least that is what it has always been called 'the tooth mug'. It was in our family bathroom when I was a child, having come from my grandfather's bathroom. It is a lustreware christening mug with a name and date on it from 1850s. It now resides out of the way of DD and DS in a glass-fronted dresser.

My "tooth mug" is one of those oversized Sports Direct mugs. I've got to face the facts- in a JC novel I'd probably be cast as the dependable boot, wouldn't I?

My tooth mug is a Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips wedding mug!!

Oh dear I do love this thread. On the back of it, I have just restarted reading Jump which I think is pretty decent (better than Score and the school one which was No Good).

On a separate note, I know a guy and Jilly Cooper is his godmother! too awesome, no?

Agatha I have one of those It was my mum's and I thought it was definitely for keeping.

Just remembered that a friend of DM met Jilly at a party & they chatted husbands-with-Parkinsons and friend sent Jilly further info & got a lovely letter back. Hurrah for Jilly.

I now feel inadequate sans toothmug but have started re-reading rivals. So perfect with booze in the heat!

you have to be worried about how she'd categorize you though, I'd hate to be one of her well meaning bore types but I expect I am! Or the academics with greasy hair/lovers of modern discordant classical music etc.

You know what I mean, she's also great at stereotypes of people she's not keen on!

For god's sake DON'T buy a bottle of fernet branca! I tried some (after reading a book with it in) - it's bloody rank! A bit like Jaegermeister I guess. It's a digestif (full of herbs to supposedly make your dinner digest better). It made me want to hurl!

@fishonabicycle the POINT of fernet branca is to make you hurl up what ails you or to calm a dicky stomach. It's famously a hangover cure & stomach settler. The last time I had some was purposely to help myself along and make me throw up. The only people bonkers enough to drink it are the French.

Jager, on the other hand- I once discovered that jager bombs staved off feeling start of food poisoning on a night out & now use jager as well as FB. Which sounds remarkably Jilly!

i probably even have the wrong type of dog - absolutely beautiful pedigree with a breed history far superior to anything I could ever claim!

I have a Jilly connection too if I'm allowed to brag a little? Aside from having discovered her early books at the age of about 13 - those were eye-openers!

She and I were on a Radio 4 programme a couple of years or so ago and afterwards I wrote (not emailed!) to thank her for her kind words. She sent me the loveliest letter and a signed copy of her last book.

Like many of us, I have often had Jilly moments in my life - most recently when I realised that my new-to-me car was far too shiny and Italian and should really be a battered (old-style) Mini or an absolutely filthy Golf.

Finding Fracas in Harvey Nicks' perfume dept I was utterly devastated to discovered that far from transforming me into dynamic Cameron Cook-style sex bomb, it smelt a lot like air freshener on me...

Oh I'm enjoying this thread! My dog once met Jilly's dog, my best claim to fame ever!

I always dream of being the airy, doesn't know she's beautiful heroine a la Taggie or Daisy but expect I'm probably more of a dependable boot too. Please can someone write a new novel which captures some of the magic of the early books? That hunt ball where Taggie turns up in the red dress (having been made over by the convenient make up artist friend dropping in), or Chessie turning up at the polo looking sexy despite no effort in an old vest and bermudas. It's just glorious.

Wizard Do it, write to her. I'm certain she'd be pleased and touched to hear how special her books are to you.

i wish someone would whisk me out to a bistro to eat dover sole and drink too much chablis! If only that sort of thing happened.

Now JC ought to be mandatory reading for men! Wouldn't that be nice...

Wizard - I'll do it if you do it. Her books saved me when my parents divorced- gave me a whole world to immerse myself into and escape the grim reality that was occurring in my own home.

Also:

if you add up all the hours of happiness she's given people, that's a pretty good testament to a life, not many of us will achieve that. Always read JC when I'm a bit down.

Have just ordered Octavia and Harriet for garden reading this weekend...