LONDON (AP) \u2014 Jilly Cooper, the bestselling British author known for her chronicles of class and sex in risqu\u00e9 novels, including \u201cRivals\u201d and \u201cRiders,\u201d has died unexpectedly, her agent and family said Monday. She was 88.<\/p>\n
The author died on Sunday after a fall, according to a statement from literary agency Curtis Brown, who represented her.<\/p>\n
\u201cMum was the shining light in all of our lives,\u201d her children, Felix and Emily, wrote. \u201cHer unexpected death has come as a complete shock.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cooper garnered scores of fans with her \u201cRutshire Chronicles,\u201d beginning with \u201cRiders\u201d in 1985, a humorous and racy series that portrayed the sex lives, scandals and excesses of the well-off, horse-riding upper and middle classes in 1980s England. The 11 books in the series sold millions of copies in the United Kingdom alone. <\/p>\n
One of the books, \u201cRivals,\u201d was turned into a hit Disney+ TV series last year, starring David Tennant and Alex Hassell.<\/p>\n
Britain\u2019s prime minister and royals were among those paying tribute to the author on Monday.<\/p>\n
Queen Camilla, the wife of King Charles III, called Cooper \u201ca legend\u201d and recalled seeing the author recently at a book festival.<\/p>\n
\u201cI join my husband the King in sending our thoughts and sympathies to all her family. And may her hereafter be filled with impossibly handsome men and devoted dogs,\u201d Camilla wrote.<\/p>\n
Cooper has said that the fictional Rupert Campbell-Black, the dashing hero at the heart of many of her stories, was partly inspired by Camilla\u2019s ex-husband Andrew Parker Bowles. <\/p>\n
Prime Minister Keir Starmer called Cooper \u201ca literary force whose wit, warmth and wisdom shaped British culture for over half a century and brought joy to millions,\u201d according to his office.<\/p>\n
Cooper was awarded an OBE, or Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for services to literature in 2004. Her many fans included former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who said the books offered \u201cescapism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bill Scott-Kerr, her publisher, praised Cooper for her \u201cwicked social commentary and deft, lacerating characterization.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe dissected the behavior, bad mostly, of the English upper middle classes with the sharpest of scalpels,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Her agent, Felicity Blunt, said Cooper \u201cdefined culture, writing and conversation since she was first published over 50 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEmotionally intelligent, fantastically generous, sharply observant and utter fun, Jilly Cooper will be deeply missed by all at Curtis Brown and on the set of \u2018Rivals,\u2019\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Born in 1937 in Essex, near London, Cooper cut her teeth in journalism at a local newspaper in Brentford, covering everything from parties to soccer. <\/p>\n
She said she then moved to public relations, and was sacked from more than 20 jobs before ending up in book publishing. The author married publisher Leo Cooper in 1961.<\/p>\n
Her big break came in 1969 when The Sunday Times published an entertaining piece she wrote on the difficulties of being a young working wife. She went on to become a columnist for the newspaper for over 13 years.<\/p>\n
Her first book, \u201cHow to Stay Married,\u2019\u2019 was published in 1969, followed by some 18 novels and other works, from romance to children\u2019s books and nonfiction. Her most recent \u2014 \u201cTackle!\u201d \u2014 was published in 2023. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON (AP) \u2014 Jilly Cooper, the bestselling British author known for her chronicles of class and sex in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":281843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[145500,145496,145497,36029,1157,435,145493,6026,171,145494,57,51,145498,17723,45981,50,12299,120633,145495,145499,126811,52,376,4338,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-281842","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-alex-hassell","9":"tag-andrew-parker-bowles","10":"tag-bill-scott-kerr","11":"tag-books-and-literature","12":"tag-camilla","13":"tag-celebrity","14":"tag-curtis-brown","15":"tag-england","16":"tag-entertainment","17":"tag-felicity-blunt","18":"tag-general-news","19":"tag-headlines","20":"tag-jilly-cooper","21":"tag-keir-starmer","22":"tag-king-charles-iii","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-notable-deaths","25":"tag-queen-camilla","26":"tag-rishi-sunak","27":"tag-rupert-campbell-black","28":"tag-the-queen-consort","29":"tag-top-stories","30":"tag-united-kingdom","31":"tag-united-kingdom-government","32":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115327642224940485","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}