If you met Rupert Campbell=Black - you WOULD punch him on the nose and call him a wanker

[MamaGrr]

...so why did I quiver over him as a teen, reading JC?

WHY?

Book was very amusing I thought. Perfect beach holiday stuff.

Always preferred Billy, myself

God, anyone but Rannaldini. [disgusted emoticon].

No - usually the bit players. Or Viking from the music one - must be the Irish accent or something.

Oh yes Viking

No, I'd sleep with him

Oh here it is! Goodness no, I wouldn't call Rupert a wanker, I think he is swoonsome, no punching would be involved at all! Although I'd be like Maud in Rivals, too old for him.

He's a fantastic romantic hero imo: drop dead gorgeously handsome; easily bored, witty and irreverent; rich and extremely successful at what he does, which is play POLO and run a yard. He has a helicopter, is a good friend to Billy (well, when not shagging his wife, ahem), Declan and the headmaster in Wicked, what's he called, can't remember. He's generous and sulky and witty and he really loves Taggie and is actually faithful to her once he's met and fallen in love with her.

Although he was horrible to his first wife Helen and to his first son, the piano player, can't remember his name either, oh was it Marcus?

so FUNNY switching on Mumsnet and seeing this name...
yes his son the pianist was Marcus

I always liked Viking too, and all the argentinian polo players. but when I first read Riders (FAR too young) I liked Billy too.
Enid Lloyd Foxe DOES sound good

Helen was a drip though. never felt very sympathetic towards her

have very disturbing indepth knowledge of JC novels. including all the ones of excerpts of shorter pieces, those Octavia, Bella, Prudence etc. novels etc. I think she's tremendous

Me too MrsJC, I remember a line from Prudence, said to the heroine as some cad peeled off her clothes, it was somethnig like "hmm, you're not exactly Prudent by nature are you?" or something. And all the covers featured Jilly in misty make up! There were things like homes for unmarried mothers mentioned in those earlier novels too!

Helen was a drip, absolutely, I didn't have much sympathy either.

RCB isn't a polo player, just to be pedantic. Apparently he could have gone to 10 if he had tried (natch) but decided to focus on other things.

He is an arse. But I think of him as a vastly more attractive version of Clarkson, to be honest, in which case you would be so busy laughing at his political incorrectness that you would fail to be appropriately, Mumsnettily annoyed and shag him anyway.

I LOVE Prudence
It's one of my favourite books - a real comfort read. I have all of those with the funny Jilly covers.

I would rather have Luke in Polo

Patrick O'Hara for me

OK, so he wasn't a polo player, true, but he runs a yard and he was a showjumper then. I stand corrected. I don't think he's REMOTELY like Clarkson (yuk!yuk!) and I don't think you'd be laughing, I think you'd be (or I would be, anyway!) swooning and falling into bed with him very fast because he's so handsome and flirtatious (yeah right, that I'd be his type, in my dreams ) and charistmatic.

Wasn't it Declan O'Hara? Who loved Keats and wore flourescent socks to stop his family pinching them.

must totally agree with Tribpot on the more attractive Clarkson simile - that's it exactly

Patrick was the son

Patrick was Declan's son...
I wouldn't want RCB in his early days, but definitely once he fell in love with Taggie - much more attractive then

luke in polo v.sexy too. Rather too good for Perdita I think...

Oh, odd, I don't remember Patrick O'Hara at all! But did quite like the sound of Declan, who was erudite, clever, sexy AND kind.

Patrick ends up with the mistress of Tony somone in Rivals.

MrsJC, we also share a common love for Mr John Cusack we are soul sisters indeed.

Declan's passion was Yeats, not Keats (honestly ladies, let's refresh our poetic memories). And Patrick was his scrumptious 21-year old son (I was younger when I read the book!) who ended up with Cameron Cook, the wildly glamorous director of programmes at Corinium telly. Honestly, I do think in the recent books Jilly has failed to produce a similarly fabulous cast of characters.