Dame Jilly Cooper: Best-selling author of Rivals and other raunchy romps dies aged 88 after fall
‘In three hours, we covered filthy jokes, feminism… and that was just for starters’published at 11:26 BST
Daniela Relph
Senior royal correspondent
I interviewed Jilly Cooper at her home in Gloucestershire a
couple of years ago. It was a boiling hot summer day and we sat in her picture-perfect garden.
I was due to spend 20 minutes talking to her about the
royal family. Almost three hours later, we stopped chatting.
She had a notebook
with her where she’d write things down – a story she remembered or a turn of
phrase. She said the notebook had been rich pickings for her writing over the
years.
We covered a lot of ground in those three hours – Kings,
Queens, husbands, divorces, children, footballers, the BBC, filthy jokes,
feminism.
And that was just for starters. She was warm, fun, terribly
posh but not at all snobby with a fierce intellect.
Image source, PA MediaImage caption,
Dame Jilly Cooper after being made a Dame Commander of the British Empire by King Charles in 2024
