i just finished reading a (god help me) Jilly Cooper book...it was utter crapola

[purplemonkeydishwasher]

and yet i continued to read it. page after page. chapter after agonizing chapter. I read it all. the whole time thinking: "where the hell is this stupid meandering story going?" and in the end i wasn't disappointed....it ended as poorly as it began. (it was called Wicked! BTW. her exclamation point, not mine)

took me forever too, and I'm a fast reader. that's a week i'll never get back.

Me too WWW - I bought the hardback in high hopes that Pandora meant she was on the up again. Wrong.

Oh bugger any classist attitudes that demand that you might be "chavvy" (or whatever ) if you like JC.. it's my post-holiday resolution to NOT give a feck, ever again, what the Mumsnet hoi-poloi think we should or should not be liking lest we be considered lower class!

Well, it's still Gloucestershire, basically, there's still lots of "hedgerows and garlic with its rank sexy stench" but new characters. I think she's trying to make Hengist the new Rupert but she can't top him (RCB) really.

She needs a really bossy editor who will chop about 200 pages out, and advise her that some topics can't be treated in a lighthearted way. (I suspect Jilly might not take advice though!)

tribpot - I TOTALLY agree with you.

"Plus the fact that she has so ridiculously many characters now, it's impossible to remember who the hell everyone is." --Turquoise - I think that's why she has the list and description of characters at the beginning of the book.
I had to refer to it quite often!!