DAME Jilly Cooper’s death aged 88 comes after she suffered a mini-stroke several years ago which led to a two-hour operation.
The writer – famed for her raunchy novels, including Riders, Rivals and Polo – passed away yesterday morning after a fall, her family has confirmed.
AlamyJilly Cooper died yesterday, aged 88, after a fall[/caption]
PAJilly at The Queen’s Reading Room Festival last month[/caption]
A young Jilly in 1973Rex
Tributes have poured in today for Jilly, originally from Essex, 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.
She revealed in 2010 how, while relaxing on the sofa with husband Leo, she “suddenly found that I had rolled to the side and my head was lying on the floor”.
Jilly got up and looked in the mirror but said despite feeling “disengaged” and “very peculiar”, she seemed okay and had “no intention” of seeing a doctor.
However, her son Felix arranged a doctor’s visit and drove his mum to the surgery.
“I absolutely didn’t want to go,” said the author.
Tests showed her blood pressure was very high and her cholesterol was “awful”, Jilly told the Daily Mail at the time.
She was then sent to the hospital where she was diagnosed with having had a “mini stroke that lasts less than 24 hours” – referred to as a Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA).
The condition is caused by a temporary disruption in the blood supply to the brain, according to the NHS.
Jilly needed a two hour operation. She said: “I had to stay awake throughout, but was given lots of injections so that I didn’t feel any pain.
“They then cut my neck open. They de-furred the arteries so that the blood could flow more easily.”
Jilly saw the positive side, adding that “everything is material”.
‘We are so proud of everything’
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.
PAJilly with her daughter Emily at Guards Polo Club, Windsor[/caption]
PAThe author was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire by King Charles last year[/caption]
AlamyJilly photographed at home with her pets in 1982[/caption]
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 10 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.
“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.
Shutterstock EditorialJilly at John Menzies Bookshop In Old Broad Street for a book signing for Rivals[/caption]
AlamyJilly at her home in the Cotswold village of Bisley, Gloucestershire, in 2020[/caption]
GettyJilly with Queen Camilla during a reception to mark the launch of the Queen’s reading room medal at Clarence House in March[/caption]
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.”
Early days and rise to fame
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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