KING Charles may have made her a Dame for services for literature but Jilly Cooper was the undisputed Queen of the Bonkbuster.
Jilly, who died on Sunday, age 88, in a fall at her home in the Cotswolds, was best-known as author of the raunchy Rutshire Chronicles – a series of novels about bonking, horses and scandal the English countryside.
Avalon.redJilly Cooper left a lasting legacy over the years despite admitting to being an ‘unholy terror’ in her younger days[/caption]
GettyNovelist Jilly Cooper pictured at home in Putney in 1978[/caption]
PAThe iconic author after being made a Dame[/caption]
GettyJilly with the cast of Rivals[/caption]
AlamyJilly had been writing her books since the late 60s[/caption]
With titles like Riders, Jump!, Mount!, Polo and The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous her stories of infidelity, betrayal and money sold more than 12million copies in the UK alone.
A year ago Disney+ turned Rivals into a hit TV drama starring David Tennant, Danny Dyer, Emily Atack and Aidan Turner with Alex Hassell as the ‘dangerously charismatic’ Rupert Campbell-Black.
Showjumper Campbell-Black was the handsome but wicked hero of her first Rutshire hit, Riders, which became a best-seller in 1985.
Incredibly, the book that launched Jilly Cooper’s career as a bestselling author nearly never made it to the bookshops.
Because she first wrote the story in 1970 after overhearing a mother at a polo match casually say: “Wherever my son goes, he gets mounted in half an hour.”
That one quip gave her the idea of a raunchy read set in the horsey world but Jilly left the only manuscript on a London bus and despite appeals on the radio it was lost forever.
It took Jilly another 10 years to get round to writing Riders all over again.
But when the novel was finally finished it became a world-wide hit and her career took off.
Soldier’s daughter Jill Sallitt was born on February 21, 1937, in Hornchurch, Essex but the family moved soon after to Ilkley, West Yorks. where her love for horses, dogs, and devilishly handsome men was nurtured.
Many of the heroes of Jilly’s novels were based on her father Brigadier Willam Sallitt was a Dunkirk veteran who had played rugby for Cambridge University and the Army.
In a documentary screened a year ago, Jilly recalled: “I was very naughty at school.
“I don’t know why I was so naughty, I was known as the unholy terror in the staff room giggling with friends or writing letters to boys. All I thought about was men. It’s awful, awful, awful.”
She revealed how all her friends wanted to “get off” with her handsome brother Timothy.
She said: “He was arrogant and a good game hunter.
“My father and Timothy were both very masculine and sure of their qualities. Looked after women but were the leaders. My father adored my mother.”
It was here she first met the man who would become her husband – Leo Cooper when she was eight and he was 11.
Jill recalled: “My first memory of Leo, he was looking out of my bedroom window in Ilkley and seeing him throw a strawberry jelly at a girl who was rabbiting on about how much land her father had. I thought that terribly stylish.”
She went on to the all-girls Godolphin School in Salisbury where she was only good at English and admitted spending far too much time “longing for boys”.
In the 1950s her family moved to London where she failed to get into university and began work as a junior reporter on the Middlesex Independent.
Jilly, pictured here in 1973, confessed she was ‘very naughty’ at schoolRex
GettyThe author with her children Felix and Emily and their dogs in 1978[/caption]
InstagramEmily Atack paid her respects to the Rival’s writer today[/caption]
GettyShe met with Queen Camilla earlier this year[/caption]
Shutterstock EditorialThe author of Rivals ‘Rivals’ at a film screening[/caption]
Jillly was sacked from 20 jobs, including stints in public relations and work as a copywriter – before finally working in publishing.
In 1961, when Jilly was 24 and Leo was 27, they met again at a party and fell in love.
She said: “On the first date, we went for dinner. On our second date, he asked me to marry him, and on our third date, I accepted.”
Jilly says she’s only attracted to men who are attracted to her.
“They must be able to use their eyes – those hard, lingering stares that set the electricity crackling.”
Jilly and Leo adopted two children Felix and Emily. Their home in Putney was the backdrop to her early success in the late 1960s, when she penned a Sunday Times column about marriage, sex, and society.
Her writing was famed for its candour and humour and was considered revolutionary and ahead of its time, tackling subjects that were often taboo back then.
In 1975 Jilly worked at a teen magazine and began to write short stories for them, which were later turned into romance books called Emily, Bella, Imogen Prudence, Harriet and Octavia and a collection of short stories called Lisa &Co.
‘Game-changer’ Jilly Cooper
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!
She said: “They wanted stories which were exciting and fun. During this time, fiction was difficult, you couldn’t mention any part below the neck and above the knees.
“The editor said you’re a lousy editor and you can’t find any good stories but this is quite good and we’d like to publish it.
“For a writer it’s like having an orgasm being published. I always take a diary with me to write quotes down. Some won’t end up anywhere, others will end up in my novels.”
In 1985 her life took a wild turn with the release of Riders.
Jilly admitted serial adulterer Rupert Campbell-Black was inspired by “four very, very grand, gorgeous men who I met and thought: ‘Gosh, I’ll put a bit of that in a book.’”
She said: “All my heroes are macho. They’re strong and brave, and if a woman is being stupid, they’ll tell her she’s being stupid. They don’t get pushed around as much as they do now!”
The racy romp flew off the shelves and saved Jilly and Leo, who was then then a military book publisher, from financial ruin.
She revealed: “We’d moved from Putney to the Cotswolds to finish Riders, and we were always broke.
“When the book got published, our bank manager said, ‘Lovely little property, what a tragedy you have to sell it, and don’t think your dirty little book will get you out of it.’ But it did! We went to Coutts after that.”
GettyThe author’s life was very different back in the day[/caption]
AlamyJilly Cooper with her husband Leo in 1972[/caption]
PAJilly Cooper and daughter Emily[/caption]
Jilly poses with key members of the cast of Rivals
But while Jilly’s career was riding high, her personal life hit the rocks.
In 1990, she discovered her beloved husband, Leo, had been having a six-year affair with glamorous publisher Sarah Johnson.
Jilly said: “My husband was a lovely man, but he fell in love with someone else. And that’s what happened.”
Despite the heartbreak of Leo’s affair, Jilly and her husband eventually reconciled and remained married for an incredible 53 years.
They endured yet another devastating challenge in 2001, when Leo was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
Leo died at their family home in the Cotswolds in 2013, surrounded by loved ones.
Reflecting on her incredible life story, Jilly said: “I hope I’m funny, and I hope I cheer people up. Life is short of joy, and I think sex is heaven – you should have as much as you can, and in books, I think you should have as much as you can too.”
Today publisher Bill Scott-Kerr said: “A world without a new Jilly Cooper novel on the horizon is a drabber, less gorgeous place and we shall mourn the loss of a ground-breaking talent and a true friend.”
PAJilly with Aidan Turner who played the character Declan O’Hara in Rivals[/caption]
PAThe author beaming after being made a Dame[/caption]
Mike LawnJilly with her husband Leo whom she had a turbulent relationship with at times[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
