Why we all adore Jilly Cooper
Jilly Cooper is famed for her passion for music, and her books are built on references that run from pop to Purcell. So it's no wonder, says Daisy Buchanan, that her fans are eager .
is everywhere. It doesn’t matter where you are – a friend’s house, a holiday cottage, the home of your strictest and most severe great auntie – it’s a pretty safe bet that you’ll find one of her stories on the bookshelf. Whether you’re part of her army of superfans, or just spent your adolescence reading Riders under the bedclothes with a torch, you’re probably familiar with her racy racing tales. But why do we find her so appealing? Let’s investigate.
The horse riding
Racing is at the heart of Cooper’s Rutshire Chronicles, and Cooper is capable of making a showjumping event sound so compelling that readers risk damaging their hands, because they’re gripping their books so hard. Even if you always switch channels when the racing is on, and think a three foot bar is where the jockeys go for a pint afterwards, you’ll find that your heart is in your mouth when Rupert Campbell–Black is going for an Olympic Gold, or the beloved village horse is on the brink of winning the Grand National.
The animals
Cooper herself is a celebrated animal lover, and the dogs in her novels are as endearing and fully formed as her human characters. They also serve an educational purpose, with some of the puppies named after famous composers and Tennyson poems. If you’re not sure whether a character is going to turn out to be flawed yet likeable, or completely evil, check to see whether they have any pets. If they don’t have any animals in their life, they’re up to no good. If they’d interrupt a naked tennis match because they’re so concerned about the possible perishing of mice or voles, they’re the main character.
The, ahem, ‘naughtiness’
Many readers came to Jilly in their teens, with books being swapped furtively and particular pages folded at the corners. Many of her characters are not shy about shedding their clothes, and they don’t care where they do it – stables, helicopters and offices are all perfectly good places to get to know someone a little better. Cooper celebrates all kinds of bad behaviour, so when people aren’t getting naked, they’re getting so drunk that they’re sick into someone else’s trombone, or ‘blueing’ the housekeeping budget on a slinky dress to impress someone who isn’t their husband.
Three words: Rupert Campbell-Black
Said to be the handsomest man in England, RCB is the bad boy that nearly every nerdy reader longs to tame. He gets through women like most of us get through phone batteries, he’s notorious for whipping his horses too hard and he’d sooner write his feelings down with an Etch-A-Sketch than admit to having any emotions out loud. Yet his charisma is so undeniable that he makes Harry Styles look downright unpopular.
She makes us believe in true love
Ultimately, the appeal of any Cooper book lies in the love story, and even if you take away the horses, the parties and the affairs, you’re left with a belief in enduring, old fashioned romance. The stories feature teenagers falling in love for the first time, characters finding confidence and starting again after a failed relationship and even septuagenarian widows discovering love late in life after horrible marriages. In Cooper’s world, there is always hope – and that’s why her readers keep returning to her words.
Hear .
