DAME Jilly Cooper who was famed for her raunchy novels has died at the age of 88
The much-loved author passed away yesterday morning after a fall, her publisher and family confirmed.
PADame Jilly Cooper has died[/caption]
Jilly on the Russell Harty Plus Show in 1973Rex
AlamyJilly had been writing her books since the late 60s[/caption]
Tributes have now poured in for Jilly, who had sold over 11 million copies of her books in the UK alone.
Her steamy novels often portrayed the scandals and sex lives of wealthy country social circles, including Rivals, Riders and Polo.
Jilly’s children Felix and Emily said: “Mum, was the shining light in all of our lives.
“Her love for all of her family and friends knew no bounds.
“Her unexpected death has come as a complete shock.
“We are so proud of everything she achieved in her life and can’t begin to imagine life without her infectious smile and laughter all
around us.”
Jilly, who was dubbed ‘Queen of the bonkbuster’ for her raunchy novels, published her first book, How To Stay Married, in 1969.
This was quickly followed by a guide, How to Survive From Nine To Five, in 1970.
Her fourteenth novel, Pandora, was published in 2002 and spent 19 weeks on the bestseller list.
Probably her most famous book is Riders, which was published in 1985.
It is the first book in her Rutshire Chronicles Series, which runs to ten novels.
Actor Rufus Jones, who stars on the hit TV drama Rivals based off Jilly’s book, paid tribute to the author on social media.
A post from Jones on Instagram read: “We are almost exactly halfway through filming Series 2 of Rivals, and have just heard that Dame Jilly has left us.
“What an extraordinary woman. Just last month we were all together at her famous summer garden party, still giddy at being in the realm of this fantastic person.
‘Game-changer’ Jilly Cooper
By Georgette Culley
GROWING up, most films, magazines, and porn seemed laser-focused on male pleasure, leaving women’s desires as an afterthought.
Sex education at school wasn’t much better – condoms on bananas and stern warnings not to get pregnant.
Sex was painted as something dirty, never as something beautiful or empowering.
But when I discovered Jilly Cooper’s books in my teens, it was a total game-changer.
While she always wrote about strong, macho men, her female characters were just as powerful – especially in the bedroom. Jilly’s women weren’t shy or secondary, they owned their sexuality, making her novels a breath of fresh air in a world that often sidelined female pleasure.
She put women – and their pleasure – centre stage and made sure every girl knew that they too could enjoy earth-shattering orgasms – and lots of them.
She also taught me that sex – and relationships – aren’t always perfect. They can be messy, funny, chaotic, and downright awkward at times.
But that’s where the magic happens. It’s in those imperfect moments that intimacy feels most real and beautiful.
It was a lesson that helped me view sex with a lot more honesty and humour.
Okay, Jilly did set me up for a bit of a fall with her characters’ near-impossible standards – let’s face it, not every man is going to be dashing and blessed downstairs like her leading men.
But she still made me appreciate the fun, complexity, and power of female pleasure.
In short, I’ve learned from Jilly that life is messy, love is complicated, and there’s always room for a bit of fun – even in the most unexpected places!
“Hilarious, twinkingly outrageous and kind, we loved being in her company. I remember having lunch on set with her two summers ago, and the stories poured out of her.
“An incredible one about interviewing Thatcher which- like so much of her master storytelling- was surprising, subverting and deeply human.
“My love and thoughts with Jilly’s friends and family, and the Rivals company. Back to filming a show that was always Hers, but utterly more so now.
Felicity Blunt, her agent, said it was a “privilege” to work with Jilly.
Blunt said that Jilly’s passing had meant she had “lost a friend, an ally and mentor”.
Blunt wrote: “The privilege of my career has been working with a woman who has defined culture, writing and conversation since she was first published over fifty years ago.
“Jilly will undoubtedly be best remembered for her chart-topping series The Rutshire Chronicles and its havoc-making and handsome show-jumping hero Rupert Campbell-Black.
“You wouldn’t expect books categorised as bonkbusters to have so emphatically stood the test of time but Jilly wrote with acuity and insight about all things – class, sex, marriage, rivalry, grief and fertility.
“Her plots were both intricate and gutsy, spiked with sharp observations and wicked humour.
“She regularly mined her own life for inspiration and there was something Austenesque about her dissections of society, its many
prejudices and norms. But if you tried to pay her this compliment, or any compliment, she would brush it aside.
“She wrote, she said, simply ‘to add to the sum of human happiness’. In this regard as a writer she was and remains unbeatable.
“In her last few years Jilly added to her curriculum vitae by serving as an executive producer on the Happy Prince adaptation of her novel Rivals for Disney+.
“Her suggestions for story and dialogue inevitably layered and enriched scripts and her presence on set was a joy for cast and crew alike.
“Emotionally intelligent, fantastically generous, sharply observant and utter fun Jilly Cooper will be deeply missed by all at Curtis Brown and on the set of Rivals.
“I have lost a friend, an ally, a confidante and a mentor. But I know she will live forever in the words she put on the page and on the
screen.”
Jilly was born on February 21, 1937, in Hornchurch, Essex.
The author comes from a strong Yorkshire family, and spent a lot of her childhood in the Ilkley.
Jilly was educated at Moorfield School in Ilkley, and then the Godolphin School in Salisbury.
She began her career as a journalist as a junior reporter for the Middlesex Independent from 1957 to 1959.
Jilly‘s big break came when she was asked to write a feature about her experiences by the editor-in-chief of the Sunday Times Magazine.
This launched her into the spotlight, as this article led to her own column where she wrote about marriage, sex and housework.
The column ran from 1969 until 1982 when she moved to The Mail on Sunday for a further five years.
She also worked as an account executive, copywriter, publisher’s reader and receptionist.
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