Jilly Cooper

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Jilly Cooper, OBE (born February 21, 1937) is an English author. She started her career as a journalist and wrote numerous works of non-fiction before writing several romance novels, the first of which appeared in 1975. She is most famous for writing the six blockbuster novels the Rutshire Chronicles.

Contents

[edit] Life

Jilly Cooper was born in Hornchurch, Essex, England, to Brigadier W.B. Sallitt, OBE, and Mary Elaine Whincup. She grew up in Ilkley and Surrey, and was educated at the Godolphin School in Salisbury.

She has been married to Leo Cooper, a publisher of military history books, since 1961. The two have known each other since 1945 (when Jilly was about eight), although they did not marry until she was 24 and he was 27. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease in 2002.

They adopted two children, now adults, Emily and Felix.

The writer was involved in the Ladbroke Grove rail crash, being a passenger in one of the derailed carriages and having to crawl through a window to escape. She later spoke of feeling that her "number was up" and of being absurdly concerned about a manuscript she had been carrying, due to shock.[citation needed]

Jilly Cooper lives in Bisley, near Stroud in Gloucestershire.

[edit] Career

[edit] Journalism and non-fiction

After unsuccessfully trying to start a career in the British national press, Cooper became a junior reporter for The Middlesex Independent, based in Brentford. She worked for the paper from 1957 to 1959. Subsequently, she worked as an account executive, copywriter, publisher's reader and even a receptionist.

Her break came with a chance meeting at a dinner party. The editor of The Sunday Times Magazine was impressed by the honest and frank way that she talked about her life as a young wife and housewife, and asked her to write a feature about her experiences. This led to a column in which Cooper wrote about marriage, sex and housework with an openness that was uncommon for the time. That column ran from 1969 to 1982, when she moved to The Mail on Sunday, where she worked for another five years.

Cooper’s first column lead to the publication of her first book, How to Stay Married in 1969, and which was quickly followed by a guide to working life, How to Survive from Nine to Five in 1970. These were successful enough to merit some of her journalism being collected into a single volume, Jolly Super, in 1971. Her continuing success led to several similar volumes being issued.

The theme of class dominates much of her writing and her non-fiction is written from a distinct upper middle-class British perspective, focusing on the relationships between men and women, and matters of social class in contemporary Britain.[citation needed]

[edit] Fiction

In 1975, Cooper published her first work of romantic fiction, Emily. It was based on a short story she wrote for a teenage magazine, as were the subsequent romances (all titled with female names). She also wrote a series of children’s books featuring the heroine 'Little Mabel'.

However, Cooper's best-known works are her extremely long blockbuster novels. The first of these was Riders (1985), an international bestseller[citation needed] and the first volume of the Rutshire Chronicles. The first version of Riders was written by 1970, but shortly after Cooper had finished it, she took it with her into the West End of London and left the manuscript on a bus. The Evening Standard put out an appeal but it was never found. She was, she says, 'devastated', and it took her more than a decade to start it again.

Riders and the following books are characterised by intricate plots, featuring multiple story lines and a large number of characters. (To help the reader keep track, each book begins with a list and brief description of the characters.) Although the books do not always follow each other sequentially - Rivals and Polo chronologically overlap, for example - they are linked by recurring characters (chiefly Rupert Campbell-Black, Roberto Rannaldini, and their families) and later books make reference to events of previous books. Therefore the greatest enjoyment is gained from reading them in the order in which they were written, although the books do make sense as 'stand alone' novels.[citation needed]

The stories heavily feature adultery, (sexual) infidelity and general betrayal, melodramatic misunderstandings and emotions, money worries and domestic upheavals.

Each book of the Rutshire Chronicles is set in a milieu that can be considered glamorous and wealthy, such as show jumping or classical music. These aspects are contrasted with details of the characters' domestic lives, which are often far from glamorous.

Her novel Pandora is not one of the Rutshire Chronicles, but does feature a few characters from the series, and is very similar in style and content. Wicked! follows the same approach, including characters from previous novels and introducing new characters who are relatives, friends or rivals of existing characters. It is set in the fictional county of Larkshire, which borders her other fictional county, Rutshire.

As with her non-fiction works, Cooper draws heavily on her own point of view and experiences. For example, her own house is the model for Rupert Campbell-Black's: both are very old (although his is larger); her house overlooks a valley called the Todsmore, and his overlooks a valley called the Frogsmore. She also draws on her love of animals – dogs and horses feature heavily in her books – and the British countryside.[citation needed]

She was awarded an OBE for services to literature in the Queen's Birthday Honours list in 2004.

[edit] List of works

[edit] Non-fiction

How to Stay Married (1969)
How to Survive from Nine to Five (1970)
Jolly Super (1971)
Men and Super Men (1972)
Jolly Super Too (1973)
Women and Super Women (1974)
Jolly Superlative (1975)
Supermen and Superwomen (1976)
Work and Wedlock (1977)
Superjilly (1977)
The British in Love (1979)
Class: A View from Middle England (1979)
Supercooper (1980)
Violets and Vinegar: An Anthology of Women's Wrirings and Sayings (1980)
Intelligent and Loyal (1981)
Jolly Marsupial (1982)
Animals in War (1983)
The Common Years (1984)
On Rugby (1984; with Leo Cooper)
On Cricket (1985; with Leo Cooper)
Hotfoot to Zabriskie Point (1985)
Horse Mania! (1986)
How to Survive Christmas (1986)
Turn Right at the Spotted Dog (1987)
Angels Rush In (1990)

[edit] Fiction

Emily (1975)
Bella (1976)
Harriet (1976)
Octavia (1977)
Imogen (1978)
Prudence (1978)
Lisa and Co. also released as Love and Other Heartaches (1981)

'Little Mabel' series:

Little Mabel (1980)
Little Mabel's Great Escape (1981)
Little Mabel Wins (1982)
Little Mabel Saves the Day (1985)

The Rutshire Chronicles:

Riders (1986)
Rivals (1988) (also called Players)
Polo (1991)
The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous (1993)
Appassionata (1996)
Score! (1999)
Pandora (2002)
Wicked! (2006)

[edit] Film, TV, or theatrical adaptations

Television adaptations of Cooper's romance novels are currently in development with ITV. Octavia, the first, will began production on 17 September 2007, in the UK, with nineteen-year-old actress/model Tamsin Egerton of St. Trinian's[clarify] fame taking the title role.[citation needed]

Previous productions include the TV mini-series The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous, starring Hugh Bonneville, produced by Sarah Lawson.

[edit] External links