Mount by Jilly Cooper - SPOILERS!

[MrsCampbellBlack]

So do not read this thread if you have not read the whole book.

[LBOCS2]

The national /racial /xenophobic stereotypes are getting ever more cringe worthy and if you're female you've still got to loose weight to get your man.

Yes, this. You sort of tolerate the borderline racism in the 80s books because they're a product of their time but I was very disappointed that they've continued into this one. It's almost like she hasn't wanted to mess with a formula which works, without realising it doesn't any more.

[tribpot]

Dame Edith / Dame Enid has also undergone name changes between books, I think Jilly's editing team are also permanently on the Bolly.

This thread is just reaffirming my decision not to read this - I read Jump and it was the absolute pits. In my mind I have erased it and the series ends a lot earlier, probably with Rivals.

[tribpot]

Btw how old was Rupert meant to be at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984? Certainly mid-twenties I think? (Although yes surely the Perdita-conceiving orgy was in the 60s). He was already a grandad by The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous.

I just read on Wiki that he is based on Andrew Parker-Bowles, which would cast Taggie (somewhat unrealistically) as Camilla and therefore a Prince is waiting for her.

[Unicornsarelovely]

Rupert was in the army when Perdita was conceived so must have been 30 at a push in 1984. Probably older. So well into his 60s now.

I liked the stories up to polo but haven't really enjoyed any since. The villains became less sexy and more horrible in the others.

[MrsCampbellBlack]

I should have stopped reading before Wicked - they're just getting worse really.

Jilly clearly wanted to shock by having Rupert be unfaithful - however the bigger shock would surely have been to show him actually remain faithful to Taggie. Also feel sad that Taggie didn't blossom at all and just became a total doormat to Rupert and his/her family.

[tribpot]

The joy has gone out of it for her, has done ever since her own marriage broke down I think. She can't manage her so-bad-they're-good puns and cast of hilarious secondary characters any more. I can only imagine she's writing them for the money now. Clearly her publishers think it's worth wringing every last penny out of the popularity of the early books.

The series jumped the shark when Tabitha and Isaac Lovell didn't end up together as was always foretold.

[MrsCampbellBlack]

True fact Tribpot, true fact.

[BestIsWest]

I love her early books but for me Polo was the last really good one.

I am struggling with this one. It's very sad.

I wish someone had convinced her to write an autobiography - The Common Years is a lovely, lovely book and the nature writing is beautiful. I agree with others who have said the same. She's really underrated in that respect. Maybe her life became too sad.

[MrsCampbellBlack]

Just read an interview in Red magazine with her - the interview asked her to write better heroines as they are all so wet - she said she'd try but she wrote them like that because she is like that.

She also said she based Rupert's jokes on her husband's sense of humour.

[FiveGoMadInDorset]

I think she was cramming in toomany characters just to bring them back, we didn't need Janey Lloyd Fox or her internet dating friend, Rosaria or her husband or indeed poor Geoffrey

[LanaorAna1]

Of course she wrote for money - but that doesn't mean the stuff can't be good as well.

I think an autobiography would be tricky if it were to be truthful, and she is such a truthful person, both as an observer in print, and as a human being.

I do want a nature book though - I would absolutely love that - pure joy. Really Jilly is the unsung great nature poet of our times.

[tribpot]

Yes, I think she should have got a ghost-writer or junior writer, you know the way Tom Clancy does and Anne McCaffrey used to - they would no doubt help to plot the book and it had to be written in their style but a lot of the graft gets done by someone who is enthusiastic (and in Jilly's case, not offensively out of touch with modern sensibilities about race and so on). Loads of people would have fallen over themselves to help her preserve the Cooper/Campbell-Black legacy. A great shame.

[LanaorAna1]

It's a fine idea but ghosts are incredibly skilled/opinionated and juniors are useless, and I can't see someone of Jilly's calibre wanting to spend time with them. She loves the research more than anything, too, which is what gets farmed out first.

It's the editors as make the author, and in this case they didn't get a fair crack at the whip.

[sleepyhead]

Why do you think that was Lanaor? Was it handed over too late or was there resistance to any changes or rewrites/cuts?

Inoffensive wonder when I read a flabby epic by a previously tighter writer whether they get to the point where they think they're too big for their editors. (JK Rowling being a case in point - a scythe should have been taken to those last few monsters, heretical though that might sound. John Irving too.)

[sleepyhead]

Inoffensive I often...

[Motherwithflaws]

Oh Jilly what have you done?!

[Pencilplant]

Horrible book just horrible. Hated it. Why has she become so nasty? Eddie putting his cock in old ladies mouths? What on earth would make her put this in the book it's just revolting. She seems to have lost the plot. Also makes me realize that reviews with 5 stars are so suspicious because there is no way this is a 5 star anything.

[Alfieisnoisy]

I have hated the past few books tbh so didn't bother buying this one. The last few I have read when they have hit the charity shops but I probably won't bother with this one.

[TooExtraImmatureCheddar]

Yes, what was the point of Geoffrey? I kept expecting him to actually win for a change and beat Quickly, but no, he just carried on being an also-ran.

Another thing - every single couple from Wicked is still going? Bianca and Fergal, Xav and Aysha, Dora and Paris? Really? They were teenagers and yet none of them ever broke up, and went off to live in far flung countries together? Not to mention Cosmo and Mrs Robinson Walton.

I was really pissed off by the anti-Chinese demo staged by Taggie, Dora and Gala when Bao arrived. That was really offensive. And why oh why would Taggie join in with such a thing, to a guest in her house? It's just rude.

Why is Taggie still lonely and shy at the racing? She's been married to Rupert since the late 80s and going to the racing with him since at least the early 90s - why does she still not know anyone to talk to? That makes no sense.

[Motherwithflaws]

Oh my fucking god I've just found buttercunt.

Jilly why did you have to spoil everything?!

[bikiniandboardshorts]

Its so sad we can no longer read this books as a 'jolly romp'. The fun has gone. I agree, Taggie was so wet. I hated Gala. So many repeated lines, Etta is a pain in the arse and how on earth can Jilly decide that Chinese people automatically switch first and surnames round? (Bao).

Shame.

And apparently she is working on her new book, set in the world of football.

I read the acknowledgements, and she put a note in there about wishing animal rights activists would target the transporting of horses to Europe for meat. She made it sound like we just sit on our arses doing nothing! I agree with a previous poster - its ok to fox hunt, but leave her beloved horse alone.

FWIW, my favourite character was Purrpuss.

[daisygirlmac]

I loved most of her others (not Jump) but thought all of the joy has gone out of her writing here. Rupert has turned into a nasty twat with no real redeeming features and Taggir has gone as wet as a weekend in Cumbria. I hated Gala and thought the huge mishmash of storylines was really annoying, better to just pick two or three and develop them properly. Also buttercunt and wetta and valent just bleurgh