{"id":62437,"date":"2025-10-06T19:15:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T19:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/62437\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T19:15:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T19:15:09","slug":"queen-camilla-leads-tributes-to-romance-author-jilly-cooper-after-her-death-at-88","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/62437\/","title":{"rendered":"Queen Camilla leads tributes to romance author Jilly Cooper after her death at 88"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cooper\u2019s publisher, Bill Scott-Kerr, said that \u201cJilly may have worn her influence lightly but she was a true trailblazer\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"BritishBritish novelist and writer Jilly Cooper signing copies of her anthology The British in Love at Barkers department store in Kensington, London. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

He praised her steamy novels as \u201ca winning combination of glorious storytelling, wicked social commentary and deft, lacerating characterisation\u201d.<\/p>\n

Cooper was born Jill Sallitt on February 21, 1937.<\/p>\n

Her best-selling novels were famously filled with sex, snobbery and fun, and boasted suggestive titles such as Tackle!, Mount! and Score!.<\/p>\n

She said in an interview before the Disney+ release: \u201cPeople like love stories to cheer them up. And that\u2019s what I\u2019ve always wanted to do: cheer people up.\u201d<\/p>\n

British Conservative former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak professed himself \u201ca genuine fan\u201d in 2023, adding: \u201cYou have to have escapism in your life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The writer had \u201cdissected the behaviour, bad mostly, of the English upper middle classes with the sharpest of scalpels\u201d, Scott-Kerr said, adding Riders had \u201cchanged the course of popular fiction forever\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"DameDame Jilly Cooper was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 2024. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Cooper\u2019s children, Felix and Emily, said their mother\u2019s \u201cunexpected death has come as a complete shock\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are so proud of everything she achieved in her life and can\u2019t begin to imagine life without her infectious smile and laughter all around us,\u201d they said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u2018Ribald, rollicking\u2019<\/p>\n

Cooper\u2019s books sold 11 million copies in the UK alone.<\/p>\n

Her work spanned 18 novels and short fiction, as well as 20 works of non-fiction, which provided \u201ca window into her own life\u201d as well as \u201cacute observations on the essence of a certain type of Englishness\u201d, said Scott-Kerr.<\/p>\n

The Rutshire Chronicles were \u201cribald, rollicking and the very definition of good fun … and were to inspire a generation of women writers\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

Cooper\u2019s funeral is set to be private, in line with her wishes, but a public service of thanksgiving will be held in the coming months in Southwark Cathedral.<\/p>\n

\"AuthorAuthor Jilly Cooper poses for a portrait at the Cheltenham Literature Festival on October 9, 2010 in Cheltenham, England. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Camilla wished in her message that Cooper\u2019s \u201chereafter be filled with impossibly handsome men and devoted dogs\u201d.<\/p>\n

Cooper\u2019s publicist Felicity Blunt said she had \u201clost a friend, an ally, a confidante and a mentor\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know she will live forever in the words she put on the page and on the screen.\u201d<\/p>\n

A 2024 hit adaptation of Rivals on Disney+ brought dashing and caddish hero Rupert Campbell-Black \u2013 said to be partly based on Camilla\u2019s former husband Andrew Parker Bowles \u2013 to a new audience.<\/p>\n

It starred popular UK actors David Tennant and Danny Dyer.<\/p>\n

Blunt said in her statement that Cooper had written with \u201cacuity and insight about all things \u2013 class, sex, marriage, rivalry, grief and fertility\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t expect books categorised as bonkbusters to have so emphatically stood the test of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cooper\u2019s publisher, Bill Scott-Kerr, said that \u201cJilly may have worn her influence lightly but she was a true…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[51086,74,1975,13851,14801,26523,35089,634,6179,156,3592,5504,1364,51085,33450,22055,111,139,14620,69,3366,48943,5714,61,10140,51087],"class_list":{"0":"post-62437","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-51086","9":"tag-after","10":"tag-at","11":"tag-author","12":"tag-british","13":"tag-camilla","14":"tag-cooper","15":"tag-death","16":"tag-died","17":"tag-entertainment","18":"tag-fall","19":"tag-following","20":"tag-her","21":"tag-jilly","22":"tag-known","23":"tag-leads","24":"tag-new-zealand","25":"tag-newzealand","26":"tag-novels","27":"tag-nz","28":"tag-queen","29":"tag-raunchy","30":"tag-romance","31":"tag-to","32":"tag-tributes","33":"tag-unapologetically"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}