Jilly Cooper

Dame Jilly Cooper (1937–2025) was one of Britain’s most beloved popular novelists. She began her career as a journalist, writing numerous non-fiction works before transitioning to romance novels. She first appeared in 1975. She is best known for writing the six blockbuster novels of the Rutshire Chronicles series.

Jilly Cooper began her career in journalism, first making her name with candid, humorous columns about marriage, sex, domestic life, and social class for The Sunday Times Magazine. This early work led to several non-fiction books, including How to Stay Married (1969), How to Survive from Nine to Five (1970) and Class (1971), all of which helped to establish her distinctive upper-middle-class narrative voice.

Before becoming 'the queen of the bonkbuster', Cooper wrote a series of romance novels — Emily, Harriet, Bella, Octavia, Prudence and Imogen — whose heroines navigated love, independence and social expectations with a blend of charm and melodrama.

Even these early works displayed the ingredients that would make her fiction iconic: emotional sweep, sharp social observation, and indulgent affection for animals, as well as glamour and mischief.

Her defining achievement came with Riders (1985), the first instalment of the Rutshire Chronicles, which propelled her to international fame. Set in the world of competitive show jumping, it introduced Rupert Campbell-Black: the charismatic and arrogant aristocrat who would become her most enduring creation.

Riders sold over a million copies and set the tone for the series, featuring sprawling casts, interwoven storylines, high-stakes passions, betrayals, glamour and the tension between public brilliance and private chaos.

Cooper followed this with a series of bestselling Rutshire novels, each set in a specific environment: Rivals in the world of commercial television; Polo in the polo circuit; The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous and Appassionata in classical music; Score! in opera; Pandora in contemporary art; Wicked! in an elite boarding school; and later Jump!, Mount! and Tackle! in equestrianism and football. This irresistible blend of melodrama, satire and emotion secured her status as a seminal figure in late 20^(th)— and early 21^(st)-century British popular fiction.

Alongside her fiction, Cooper wrote extensively about animals, most notably in Intelligent and Loyal (1981) and Animals in War (1983). She also published the children's series Little Mabel.

Appointed DBE in 2024, Jilly Cooper remained a national treasure throughout her life: exuberant, generous and gloriously, unmistakably herself.

Photo credit: Allan Warren CC BY-SA 3.0