Mount by Jilly Cooper - SPOILERS!

[MrsCampbellBlack]

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

[OhMrsQ]

Kathy you are amazing!

I think out of all the JC peeps, here is my own list of characters:

Most fanciable: Patrick O'Hara
Wanted to be: Fenella Maxwell
Am actually most like: Daisy McLeod, without the kids
Smack in the face: Valerie Jones
Get drunk with: Lizzie Vereker
Give a long, withering stare to: Gala, or perhaps Maud
Biggest drip: Etta or Taggie
Favourite couple: Ferdie and Natasha
Please just get divorced: Georgie and Guy
Total sweetheart: Marcus, and Biilly
Biggest bitch: Janey

:)

[OhMrsQ]

biggest hero and best character overall: All the animals!

[StStrattersOfMN]

Kathy, you deserve some kind of recognition for that - and it's tempted me to get out a roll of lining paper, and make a visual timeline. I wish I had the time to do so, maybe one day.

[YoureAllABunchOfBastards]

Spent the afternoon mulling this over - off sick so I am allowed! I think my last favourite proper Jilly book is Pandora. Wicked has too much teen sex, Jump is too long and Mount is badly in need of editing.

Going to re-read though and look for redeeming features - then re-read Rivals if I can't find any!

[KathyBeale]

Am very pleased you are all pleased!

Going through them all reminded me how fab they are. I really like Pandora, which I think is much stronger than Score! but loathe, loathe, loathe Wicked. Partly the teen sex and partly the properly shit, lazy description of kids at a comp - Kylie Rose being pregnant and Paris who just needs sent to a 'proper' school to reach his potential and sodding Feral. And Janna being all well-meaning and liberal but ultimately doomed to fail.

I am nervous about the football book just because Jilly writes 'normal' people as badly as she writes toffs well.

[StStrattersOfMN]

Wicked is definitely the worst of them, by quite a margin.

[OhMrsQ]

And i hate the way she tries to speak 'normal'. Or, in my case, common as muck!

[AntheaBelvedon]

I do wonder about JC's knowledge of 'common' people i.e. anyone less than solid middle class.

It's all the builders and toilet cleaners being big fans of RCB and Dame Hermione, all this "hello Dame Hermione, I fort your last album was triffic'. Really?

I'm not remotely posh and showjumping, polo and the like are only familiar to me because of JC.

What I'm very heavily handedly trying to say is how famous would these people really be? Georgie yes, but have polo players ever really been household names? Hengist? Viking O'Neill?

[tribpot]

Yes, JC can only write about the gentry, although I imagine her social circle may have been invaded by millionaire football players?

If Declan moved to Rutshire in Feb 1986, Taggie and Rupert can't have married that year, because it was at the New Year's Eve party that Patrick met Cameron for the first time. Venturer didn't win the franchise til the year after (May-ish time?) after Rupert's Bonk Statement came out. Rupert and Taggie were married in winter and they had wanted a short engagement, so presumably 1987. Consistent with the Perdita story coming out in 1989 and Jilly just being crap at maths.

[MrsCampbellBlack]

I have had a very stressful week and in the old days in times of stress I turned to Jilly. She has been my comfort read for golly - 25 years. But it is all sullied.

And I would hate her to come on for a webchat because I love her but hate what she has done in mount.

I do love Daisy though - she is possibly my favourite character. Interestingly because she shagged Drew when he was with sukie but I liked her. With Gala - I just wanted her to die.

[MrsCampbellBlack]

And I am dreading the thought of her writing 'footballers' - although I did love Freddie in Rivals.

[TooExtraImmatureCheddar]

The thing with Freddie is that Jilly probably has met a lot of self-made men. Not so much your average Joe, though.

Wicked skates perilously near peadophilia, I seem to recall. And Xavier annoys me by having had a total personality change from his early tearaway days. I reluctantly like Hengist, though. I loathe Janna! I was moved to Google Jilly's schooling, though - she went to the Godolphin School for girls in Surrey, a far cry from Larkminster Comprehensive!

[LadyMonicaBaddingham]

Bad editing and appalling recall (Enid/Edith Spink, anyone?) are a hallmark of Jilly. I'm a habitual re-reader and feel like I am always inwardly correcting her prose. This book disappointed ne, but hopefully Tackle! will bring back Feral Jackson. I liked that character...

[BestIsWest]

Excellent timeline.

To add my own little footnote, Valent in his late sixties is said to have been a Premier League footballer. Which didn't begin until 1992. Which means he would have been playing in his forties. Very unlikely.

Just a little irritant but I'd the next book is about football, I hope she gets these things right.

[TooExtraImmatureCheddar]

Most fanciable: Rupert in the early books before he got too old. Declan. Ricky. I can't decide! Viking?
Wanted to be: Perdita (or Fen)
Am actually most like: Lizzie Vereker (but less nice)
Smack in the face: Helen
Get drunk with: Janey and the Carlisle twins
Give a long withering stare to: Dim Hermione
Biggest drip: Etta
Favourite couple: Daisy and Ricky
Just get divorced already: Declan and Maud
Total sweetheart: Tory
Biggest bitch: Helen

[tribpot]

If she can't even get the names and ages of her characters right I don't hold out for Jilly's grasp of professional football somehow. Who knows, half her stuff about showjumping and polo might be wrong but we have no idea (and don't care).

I wonder why she moved the LA Olympics back to 1980? I can see why she didn't want to use the actual 1980 games (only 11 countries took part in the equestrian events) but not sure why she needed the book to end in 1980 rather than 1984. I suppose it wasn't likely Helen and Rupert's marriage would have hung on for another 4 years but even so.

[AntheaBelvedon]

Can I just say how much I'm loving this thread? I've always said that if I were on Mastermind one of my two specialist subjects would be the Rutshire novels of JC so I feel like I've found my people!

My other subject would be the life of Ted Bundy but I don't think we need to bring him into this.

[KathyBeale]

I have just run these concerns past my football-obsessed husband. He says Valent could have played in the Premier League right at the end of his career because he was a goalie who often play longer. And I am bothered by Bianca saying 'Championship League' at the end of Mount! But husband also reckons that's okay even if no one ever says that and it's not actually what it's called. So that's me told!

[BestIsWest]

Was he a goalie? I didn't recall that. I know they can go on forever.

[YoureAllABunchOfBastards]

I also got pissed off with 'Championship League'

[Ploppymoodypants]

Ooh I too have found my people. I love any jilly threads. And about a quarter way through mount. It's not gripping me like riders and rivals always do, but an easy jolly read so far. Gala has just arrived!

Anyway here are my votes.
Most fanciable: RCB in Riders (obviously) and Dino Ferranti and Lysander
Most wanted to be: Fenella
Actually most like: Daisy
Smack in the face: Janey/Hilary
Get drunk with: Janey/Rupert
Withering stare: Again Rupert (who wouldn't care or turn me to stone)
Drip: Taggie/Tory
Fabourire Couple: Kitty and Llysander
Sweetheart: Tory
Bitch: Well guessing it's Gala now!

I have said this before on here, but one of my favourite things to do as a teenager when bored (say on a car journey before we all had iPhones) was to cast Riders and the rest as if a big budget Hollywood movie. This was circa 1996.
RCB: Brad Pitt
Billy: Daniel Craig (from our fiends in the north)
Jake: Tom Cruise (also realistic and per the Brad and Tom feud and she. Helen runs off with jake)
Dino: Leonard DiCaprio (think Romeo and Juliet, rather than wolf of Wall Street)
Malise: Anthony Hopkins
Helen: Nicole Kidman
Janey: Drew Barrymoore/Alicia Silverstone

I also wanted to get Winona Ryder and Christian slater in thee somewhere.

Then I get a bit stuck...

[LanaorAna1]

Favourite animal: Dinsdale, the untrainable lurcher who hoovers cakes at the Penscombe fete and 'licks his whiskers thoughtfully'.

[LanaorAna1]

I'm glad you're feeling a bit better Mrs CB. I really felt for you at the start of the thread - now what you need is a VAST GIN and bit more Jilly.

Wince at the strength of it, girl.

[tribpot]

I think Winona could have been Caitlin? She was a bit old by 96 (25) but Jilly doesn't worry about historical accuracy so I'm not sure we should either. She could probably have played Cameron - how old was she meant to be? 30?

Declan maybe Gabriel Byrne?