Tributes have flooded in to national treasure Dame Jilly Cooper, who has died at the age of 88.
Felix and Emily, children of the beloved author, said their mother, who died after a fall yesterday morning (5 October), was “the shining light in all of our lives”.
“Her love for all of her family and friends knew no bounds,” they said. “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.”
Lifelong horse lover Jilly is best known for her Rutshire Chronicles series, starring the dashing Rupert Campbell-Black, but she wrote 44 books in total, selling over 11 million copies around the world.
“The privilege of my career has been working with a woman who has defined culture, writing and conversation since she was first published over 50 years ago,” said her agent and friend Felicity Blunt.
“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.”
Jilly Cooper, centre with Belinda Mayne, left, and Caroline Waldron, who featured in a 1993 television adaptation of Riders.
“Her suggestions for story and dialogue inevitably layered and enhanced scripts and her presence on set was a joy for cast and crew alike,” she said. “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 for ever in the words she put on the page and on the screen.”
Jilly started her career as a journalist, then moved to PR, then book publishing. She married publisher Leo Cooper in 1961 and they had their two children, moving to the Cotswolds in 1982. Her first book was published in 1969 and her first long novel, Riders, in 1985. The last Rutshire Chronicle, Tackle!, was published in 2023.
In an interview last year, Jilly told H&H she showjumped as a child but an injury put paid to riding.
“I just love horses,” she said. “They are so beautiful. I go and talk to them on my walks and stroke them. I loved showjumping as a child… eventing didn’t really exist in those days, showjumping was the big one so that’s what we all did – it was terribly exciting.
“One day when I was about 14, I was showing off. My friend Jane had a pony called Jeldi, who she couldn’t get over the parallel bars at a Pony Club meet. We were just fooling around, but I said, ‘Oh get off, I’ll get Jeldi to do it,’ rode up and of course Jeldi stopped and I went into the parallel bars.
“I trapped the nerve in my arm and it was paralysed for ages. I was in hospital for a long time and it was lovely missing so much school, but I couldn’t ride again. So I wrote Riders instead, which probably did me better in later life.”
Jilly was appointed OBE in 2004 for services to literature. She was awarded honorary doctorates by the universities of Gloucestershire and Anglia Ruskin and appointed CBE in 2018 for services to literature and charity. She became a dame last year, which she said was “terribly exciting” and “lovely”.
Jilly’s publisher Bill Scott-Kerr said working with her for 30 years had been “one of the great privileges and joys of my publishing life”.
“As a journalist she went where others feared to tread and as a novelist she did likewise,” he said. “It is no exaggeration to say that Riders, her first Rutshire chronicle, changed the course of popular fiction for ever.
“Ribald, rollicking and the very definition of good fun, it, and the 10 Rutshire novels which followed it, were to inspire a generation of women, writers and otherwise, to tell it how it was, whilst giving us a cast of characters who would define a generation and beyond.”
Jilly is survived by her children and five grandchildren.
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Eleanor is an experienced journalist who spent over eight years working for local and national newspapers before joining H&H as news editor in March 2016. Passionate about equine welfare and exposing the truth, Eleanor has reported on all aspects of the industry, from Brexit to anti-bullying campaigns, and from dressage rules to mules. Her sport of choice is showjumping, in which she competes her own horses, and she also enjoys reporting at local jumping shows through to international championships.
