Jilly Cooper RIP - come and reminisce about your favourite books

[MargoLivebetter]

I feel in love with Jilly Cooper books in the mid 1980s. Devoured them all and must have read Riders about 100 times, if not more. Absolutely loved Rivals too and then my interest drifted slightly. I've loved watching the recent adaptation of Rivals on TV . It took me back to the 80s again!

I wrote to her in the early 1990s and to my great delight, she wrote back. It was such a lovely letter (which sadly I have since lost).

What are your favourite books of hers?

The Man Who. I must have read it 10 times, and it’s my comfort book.

All the highly inappropriate and utterly page turning seventies ones - Harriet especially. And Imogen.

The Common Years, lovely observations and lots of fascinating details. An easy, comforting read

Oh god yes. Was it Imogen who through stress (and a stint in the south of France) transformed from an overweight frump to an amazing beauty in red swimsuit?

So many great books. I loved Riders when I was 18 & the magical world of Penscombe!
Over the years I've read & reread pretty much everything she's written. Fantastic flawed characters, a great storyteller.
I especially loved the descriptions of characters having several G&Ts & becoming 'a bit tight' & who could forget Hip Hooray, 1st of May?😄
You'll be missed Jilly.

Loved the early ones (thanks to my male cousin who went on to become a fairly well known journalist) and also Riders, Rivals etc. struggled with the more recent books though.

She was a character! RIP Jilly.

I’ve always had a soft spot for Appassionata which is the first Jilly I ever read. That, Rivals and The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous are my favourites.

I’ve recently been reading a lot of her journalism books from the 70s/80s - fascinating stuff. It’s like a different world.

Riders, had a bit of a teenage crush on Michael praed during his robin of Sherwood days so the ‘93 film was my rather late introduction to her novels. I knew her to say hello to, kind of, in the local area as my dad serviced her cars, she probably had no clue who I was but always said hello back, very lovely down to earth lady.

Mine too - I completely agree. The ultimate comfort reading.

I loved Octavia and a lot of the other early books. Also the Rutshire Chronicles - particularly the earlier ones.
I received a lovely letter from her when my ex DP died, because his family had helped her when writing one of her books.

Oh no!!! Oh this is very sad! RIP.

I love the Rutshire books up to Score, and the name ones, and Class.

I'll have a read through in her honour, and go to bed tonight reeking of (dupe) Fracas.

Thank you Jilly Cooper for so many hours of fun.

Loved the rutshire chronicles, riders, polo, the man who, especially. Read them over and over, they just 'fell' open at the good bits 🤭. rip Jilly xx

I knew there’d be a thread!
I was also hooked as a young woman in the mid 1980s, the first time I read Riders. I’ve bought all her books, most of them more than once, either because I’ve lent them out, or donated, or they've fallen apart in my hands.
Rivals, Polo and The Common Years are my absolute favourites.
RIP Jilly. There’ll never be another.

Lisa & Co - I still can’t get over how much they would drink and then get into a car and drive.

Mid 80s here too. A much older cousin introduced me to them. I honestly didn’t understand half of what I was reading back then but found them riveting!

The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous was my gateway Jilly. My dad died when I was quite a young adult and her total escapism saved me. I tore through everything she had written that year and have bought everything ever since. I do think she drifted a little in the last couple of books but I loved her anyway. Her descriptions of flowers and woodlands and wildlife are just beautiful.

I also saw her at the South Bank promoting Rivals last year and she was an absolute delight in person, too.

I'm also a big fan but I'm genuinely baffled why no-one ever mentions how offensive some of her books are. To name but a few: domestic violence dismissed as being the women's fault; fatism; sexism; anti-gay slurs ten a penny; animal abuse; underage sex; rape. And none of it is done in a way that suggests it was anything other than Jilly's own voice and opinion. All interviews I've ever heard of her have been fawning and sycophantic. Don't get me wrong she was wonderfully poetic at times and wrote brilliant storylines but I'm amazed the themes in her books aren't ever touched upon.

Nostalgia and rose tinted glasses? I wrote up thread that when I read her books I barely understood the bulk of the content because I was a child. I haven’t read them since, couldn’t get into the tv series so hadn’t really thought about those themes until I read your post just now.
i know that things like Friends, David walliams, sex and the city etc have been called into question but maybe jilly cooper’s back catalogue just hasn’t been revisited in the same way by as many people?
not excusing at all, because I genuinely don’t remember
I don’t know the demographic of the people who watched the recent tv adaptation or whether those things were excluded or rewritten for a modern audience but i imagine people will say ‘it was different times’

@Charredteayes that's the only excuse I can think of! But it's inadequate. I'm in my 30s so reading this stuff for the first time now in 2025 is genuinely shocking to me. I should go and find some passages and put them on this thread!

Since she's died I've been listening to lots of podcasts with her on and no-one ever challenges her on any of this stuff. Even in a gentle way. For example only, Jilly always says that Rupert is her favourite character of all time because he's such a manly machine man (which she apparently loves). And yet no-one thinks to ask the obvious questions like "you adore Rupert as a character but in Riders he beat up his horse so badly that the horse acted terrified every time it came into contact with him. What was the reason for that incident? Was it to create a redemptive narrative arc? Similarly Rupert rapes his wife in a gang bang in Africa and this incident is recounted without any consequences for Rupert."

In Rivals, Cameron is beaten up so badly by Lord Baddingham that she has to go into hiding. But it is dismissed as her fault.

There are also lots of references to 14 year old school girls (seems to be the age of consent in Jillys eyes!).

I’ve belatedly subscribed to Disney just to watch Rivals. I’m horrified by Rupert CB. He is so unattractive! 😢

Here's just the first quote I found "fathers hung with cameras...wished they could escape back to the office, and, for consolation, eyed the inevitable hordes of jubilee 14 year old girls with long wavy hair and very tight breeches who seem to parade permanently..."

Well, I think what you have to bear in mind is that the 80s was 45 years ago and things were very different. The idea of "jailbait" was overtly fetishised and very mainstream. I sat on the bus as a 14 year old schoolgirl literally surrounded by men leering at pictures of girls scarcely a year older than me posing topless in the Sun, the Star, the Mirror, the Sport. I got catcalled at 12 by men in their 30s and 40s. I got flashed. Mandy Smith, aged 13, was dating Bill Wyman in his 50s. A man couldn't be prosecuted for raping his wife. We were routinely told not to dress provocatively. And so on. We didn't beam back into those times from 2025 with a moral and ethical code that had moved on and up by 45 years. They're of their time and that's often pretty horrible. I would say many people knew those attitudes were morally reprehensible but not just how wrong it was to sexualise children in that way or to not protect married women from sexual abuse. It's good to have moved on from then.

I loathe Riders and have only read it once because I agree that it's next to impossible to buy into reformed Rupert having read it. All of the books are problematic in some ways, some more bearably than others (Ricky France-Lynch is massively problematic for me and Polo is a tough read as a result).

My own parents were horrified when I was cat called or harassed, but I had a friend who was having sex at 12 in what would now be clearly understood as abusive circumstances, but which at the time were explained by my parents - the same parents - as at least partly due to her being very sexually precocious, knowing what she was getting herself into, etc etc.

Bloody love Jilly Cooper books. First read them way too young, when I was horse mad, and impressionable! Came back to them again as an adult, at first secretly like a guilty pleasure. Then I confessed to book club and made everyone read rivals when it was on Disney. We had a really good discussion about how it was a product of its time, books with very questionable characters, etc, but most of the book club loved it regardless and half of them have read more now.

I read all of these aged about 13😂(my friend had older sisters ) i absolutely devoured them and remember them fondly .
They were so glamorous and colourful and I spent my teenage years wanting to live a life like her characters.
I can't stand chick lit but the descriptions of the countryside in which her books were set and her descriptions of nature totally elevated her for me.
I feel a little sad that Jilly Cooper is no longer here.