Jilly Cooper RIP - come and reminisce about your favourite books

57 replies

MargoLivebetter · 06/10/2025 12:13

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?

OP posts:

TheSecondMrsCampbellBlack · 16/10/2025 13:41

ifyoulikealotofchocolateonyour · 16/10/2025 13:00

@TheSecondMrsCampbellBlacki have to disagree on her not being a snob...i picked up her book about Class recently (I can't remember the name- it might actually be called "Class") and it's almost unreadable as its so painfully and nastily snobby. Again I would imagine very much of it's time as Jilly was. She had many wonderful attributes and I bet she was great fun but by her own admission she was horribly bitchy and I'm certain a terrible snob too.

Fair enough! Maybe she was a snob.

TheSecondMrsCampbellBlack · 16/10/2025 13:41

Bluffinwithmymuffin · 16/10/2025 13:17

@TheSecondMrsCampbellBlack
Well, it wouldn’t do if we all liked the same thing I suppose. Blonde, blue-eyed and uber posh doesn’t do it for me, but I can see why he appealed to some.
The rape thing though…? In the scene I’m thinking of, Rupert doesn’t just rape his own wife, he also allows his friend to have sex with her against her will too. It’s nauseating, legal or not. I thought so at the time, even though I’m from that era myself.

I do agree, it’s an awful scene

Notonthestairs · 16/10/2025 13:41

Rupert & Billy both raped Helen. Yes it was horrible to read even in 1985.

Marital rape wasn’t established until 1991 (and there were multiple appeals against it which I find as shocking - just how?). But I think it’s quite difficult to outline quite how different society is now. Riders was originally written in 1970 (rewritten after she lost it on a bus).

I spent a lot of the 1980s waitressing events (hunt balls etc) and it felt pretty lawless on occasions.

i think what Cooper achieved was effective world building - communities and landscapes you half recognised and perhaps wanted to join. You could put your own troubles on hold and immerse yourself. Of course as a 16 year old I imagined myself as Perdita or Caitlin not Mrs Bodkin or Mrs Makepiece.

As for Class I must admit I haven’t read it but again if you look at the paper she was writing for at the time, The Sunday Times, it was horribly nasty about class and deeply sexist (single mothers being the cause of all ills etc). She wrote for a very particular group.

Allswellthatendswelll · 16/10/2025 13:45

Harriet and Emily are my problematic favourites!

Notonthestairs · 16/10/2025 13:49

The alternative bestsellers at the time were books like A Woman Of Substance where the heroine was perfect and marvellous at everything, poverty was somewhat idealised, the baddies were always rapacious lords and there was zero sense of humour.

Bridget Jones’ Diary was a revelation in comparison.

Bluffinwithmymuffin · 16/10/2025 14:31

@TheSecondMrsCampbellBlack
Yes, awful. That said, I never got the feeling Jilly was condoning the rape behaviour; ditto the beatings, infidelity and other nasty stuff - towards animal or human - she was just immersed in the story she was telling, which is probably a large part of the reason why the world she created was so believable and utterly absorbing - in Jilly mode now :)

Charredtea · 16/10/2025 17:42

ifyoulikealotofchocolateonyour · 15/10/2025 21:57

@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!).

Wow! I’d definitely forgotten all of this! At least now I don’t feel compelled to re-read or watch!

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