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?

Hmm, I thought Appassionata was OK ish but not a patch on the others. Some good characters, never understood why anyone fancied Rannaldini, she sounded foul, as did Hermione. Not as bad a MWMHJ though

he, not she wrt Rannaldini

MrsJC, you are quite correct, I was attempting to confirm your assertion, not make it my own

Was anyone else faintly disturbed that in Wicked Jilly seemed to find it perfectly acceptable to describe a lesbian couple adopting as (basically) a crime against nature?! Not to mention the 13-year-old Bianca C-B having sex? It was all a bit much to cope with.

Wicked is the only Jilly Cooper I haven't read.
Felt it was all getting a bit silly and haven't got around to reading it yet

I think it was WWWCAmpbellBlack you meant not me?

It was - doh, my apologies to WWWCB. And you have done right in not reading it, it's all a bridge too far.

Caitlin O'Hara is such a fabulous character I can't believe I didn't name one of my DDs after her. (Er, except it might have become public knowledge that one of our DCs literary names was actually from a Jilly Cooper).

Early books funny, later books dire. She really needed to ease up on the puns.

I also found Wicked pretty vile because JC seemed to jsut pass on all the sexual antics of the adult characters in the earlier books onto children at school. Felt that it wasn't sexy any more because the idea of 14 year olds shagging leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

My favourite JC book was Rivals - good balance of RCB being less chauvanistic, interesting characters and still fun. It all went downhill after Polo if you ask me.

I half-read Appassionata and failed to progress beyond the first chapter of another music one (?) - it all got too embarrassing really. I just couldn't bring myself to read a book entitled 'The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous'.

Rivals was fun though! Hackneyed old tosh, but fun! (Valerie Jones lives a few houses up the lane from us)

Oh that reminds me. There's a woman the dead-spit of Jilly Cooper who lives about 1/2 mile away and we were introduced to her when we moved here. I thought it would be all sitting round her aga, sloshing back Chablis and gossiping like mad but she's really, really dull. It's so not fair!!!

Pooka, agree, something quite unsavoury about a lot of Wicked.

Well quite Norks, twas a stupid title.

I think she completely lost it when she found out about her husband's affair, which was during the writing of The Man who made Husbands Jealous. All the fun went out of her novels from there on (although the one about a painting wasn't too bad).

Riders, Rivals and Harriet were my favourites.

Is Wicked the latest - the school one? The worst pile of shoite ever written, imo. Can't believe any publisher would have touched it if it had been offered by an unknown

True, I remember Leo had an affair and I think (though don't know) that she was devoted to him and was devastated.

Agree, Pandora was better.

I think you are very right there Turquoise, I do think her husband's affair devasted her.
my sister used to work for JC's literary agent way back when, and met JC - who was exactly as you would imagine her, happily.

yes it all went downhill after Polo. Rivals is just the best though, my copy is falling to pieces because I've reread it so many times!

ONly just seen this thread! OMG - lots of memories flooding back, yes I certainly would leap into bed with RCB!!!!

Haven't read books, but liked Riders, and Rivals, wasn't so struck on Polo - never really took to Ricky France-Lynch, not so keen on the others till Pandora which is great!

I agree that RCB gets much sexier as he gets older and when he falls for the adorable Taggie then you get to see him through her eyes, which is a lot more flattering.

He is kind as well, the way he seems to be giving away his money to everyone he knows in some kind of allowance.

When they adopt the little boy (can't remember his name) that is really endearing.

Poor JC, with the husband thing. I love her books.

Typical me
I preferred Taggie's Dad
Rupe was way to fuck em and chuck em for me
Billy Lloyd Fox too pussy whipped...
Scuse my very non Cotswoldy language btw

Christ I would rather poke myself in the eye with a shitty stick than go near Rupert C-B. I liked Billy though, what a sweetie.

Billy was too nice for my liking. Declan O'Hara though - yummy. Would have been happy to be Cameron Cooke - fling with RCB, one-nighter with Declan, end up with Patrick. As long as I was not required to get my body into her standard of physical perfection, or wear earrings the size of satellite dishes!

But Cameron Cook had to shag the Tony Baddingham for years. No job is worth that. Bleurgh!

True - never understood why Tony was meant to be so attractive.

Gosh, no. I'd rather be Taggie, wildly pretty, loved etc. Mind you, maybe not, she couldn't have children could she? They adopted a boy from Bogota, can't remember his name.

I was forced to dig out Rivals last night after reading this thread - what a GREAT book! In my version, the Baddinghams are called the Bullinghams and Corinium TV is called Cotswold TV (it's a hardback first edition; somehow I think NOT going for a fortune at Sotheby's somehow) - this changes when they are referred to in Polo and the MWMHJ, I wonder why?

I really liked Appasionata and Score! I do agree that Abby is rather unsympathetic,as a character, but I like Flora, Viking anf the orchestra characters. Pandora is ok as well, got Wicked for my birthday and agree with others here - a bit unsavoury in parts and some lazy writing really. Hope it's a blip, as I love a good Jilly Cooper! One of my favourite parts of any of her books is the acknowledgement part at the beginning where she name drops as many famous people as possible, and seems to have done amazing amounts of research - one of my favourite of these is where she thanks someone from an orchestra for answering all her questions including "Would it be possible to bonk a small woman on a glockenspeil?"

Loving this thread! Never finished Wicked - I'm a teacher and just spent most of the time saying 'God - that would never happen!' I mean, it's not like any of her other novels are real life but the school thing was just too close to home. I agree with the earlier posts saying that the teenage sex was just too much - I don't want to think of all my Yr 8s and Yr 9s in that context, thank you very much! I was sooooo disappointed by it.