British author Jilly Cooper, famous for novels of sex and snobbery, dies at 88

LONDON – Jilly Cooper, the British author of novels such as Rivals and Riders, whose 1980s bestsellers were a blend of sex, satire and British snobbery, has died aged 88, her agent said in a statement on Oct 6.

She died after a fall on Oct 5.

From the mid-1980s, her raunchy novels depicting the romantic adventures of an upper-class set of characters in the fictional county of Rutshire gained increasing commercial success.

In 2024, Rivals found a new generation of fans when it was made into a series for Disney+. Sales of books first published decades before shot up once again, as the themes of adultery and class rivalry thrilled younger audiences.

“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,” Cooper’s agent, Ms Felicity Blunt at Curtis Brown, said in the statement.

Born in Essex in 1937, Cooper was a newspaper columnist for The Sunday Times in the 1960s, commenting on marriage, sex and household chores, before she started writing novels in the 1970s.

It was not until Riders in 1985 that she had her breakthrough. At the centre of the story is Rupert Campbell-Black, a handsome, ruthless show jumper and womaniser who lives in his family’s manor house in Rutshire.

“There’s far less bonking now. People are so serious. I think we need more joy,” Cooper said in 2024.

Rutshire was inspired by Gloucestershire, where she moved in the early 1980s. Among her social circle in that part of western England was then Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles, now Queen Camilla, following her marriage to Prince Charles in 2005.

Speaking on a podcast in 2024, Cooper was asked about Queen Camilla’s first husband, army officer Andrew Parker Bowles.

“He’s been a great friend for a long time... he’s very like Rupert. He’s beautiful, blond and stunning,” she said, referring to the character in her novels.

Queen Camilla led tributes to Cooper.

“I was so saddened to learn of Dame Jilly’s death last night,” she said.

“She was a wonderfully witty and compassionate friend,” she added, praising the writer as a “legend” in her “own lifetime, creating a whole new genre of literature”.

Cooper’s publisher Bill Scott-Kerr said in a statement that “Jilly may have worn her influence lightly, but she was a true trailblazer”.

He praised her steamy novels as “a winning combination of glorious storytelling, wicked social commentary and deft, lacerating characterisation”.

Cooper’s books sold 11 million copies in Britain alone.

Her work spanned 18 novels and short fiction, as well as 20 works of non-fiction that provided “a window into her life” and “acute observations on the essence of a certain type of Englishness”, said Mr Scott-Kerr.

The Rutshire Chronicles were “ribald, rollicking and the very definition of good fun, and were to inspire a generation of women writers”, he added.

Cooper’s funeral is set to be private, in line with her wishes, but a public service of thanksgiving will be held in the coming months in Southwark Cathedral.

Queen Camilla wished in her message that Cooper’s “hereafter be filled with impossibly handsome men and devoted dogs”.

Ms Blunt said she has “lost a friend, an ally, a confidante and a mentor”.

“I know she will live forever in the words she put on the page and on the screen,” she added. REUTERS, AFP