{"id":257524,"date":"2025-11-11T21:36:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T21:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/257524\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T21:36:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T21:36:08","slug":"jilly-cooper-died-of-head-injury-suffered-in-fall-at-home-inquest-hears-jilly-cooper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/257524\/","title":{"rendered":"Jilly Cooper died of head injury suffered in fall at home, inquest hears | Jilly Cooper"},"content":{"rendered":"

The author Jilly Cooper suffered a fatal head injury during a fall at her Gloucestershire<\/a> home, an inquest has heard.<\/p>\n

Cooper, 88, whose 18 novels include Riders and Rivals, was found by family at her home in Bisley at about 5pm on 4 October.<\/p>\n

She was initially alert and paramedics transferred her to Gloucestershire Royal hospital, but her condition deteriorated, Gloucestershire coroners court heard.<\/p>\n

She died in hospital, with her family present, at 8.30am on 5 October.<\/p>\n

The senior coroner for Gloucestershire, Katy Skerrett, reached a conclusion of accidental death and said Cooper had died as a result of a traumatic subdural haematoma.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe circumstances surrounding her tragic death were she had suffered an unwitnessed fall at her home address on 4 October,\u201d Skerrett said. \u201cShe fell, perhaps down some stairs, sustaining a significant head injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were no suspicious circumstances surrounding her fall. She passed away later, on 5 October, with family present.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cooper is best known for the Rutshire Chronicles, which follow the scandals of the upper classes in the fictional Cotswolds county of Rutshire. The second novel in the series, Rivals, was adapted for Disney+ and released last year.<\/p>\n

Her novels were often described as \u201cbonkbusters\u201d, but to her they were \u201ca bit of everything\u201d, she told the Guardian<\/a> in 2016. \u201cBut if they want to call it bonkbuster they can \u2013 except it ought to be called \u2018shagbuster\u2019 now, bonk is out of date.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her death prompted tributes from high-profile figures including Queen Camilla, who said in a statement: \u201cVery few writers get to be a legend in their own lifetime but Jilly was one, creating a whole new genre of literature and making it her own through a career that spanned over five decades \u2026 may her hereafter be filled with impossibly handsome men and devoted dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cooper was given a damehood in the 2024 new year honours list for her services to literature and charity.<\/p>\n

The former prime minister Rishi Sunak, famously a fan<\/a> of her works, wrote on X<\/a>: \u201cSad to hear of the passing of Dame Jilly Cooper, a storyteller whose wit and love of character brought joy to millions. My thoughts are with her family and fellow readers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The author Jilly Cooper suffered a fatal head injury during a fall at her Gloucestershire home, an inquest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-257524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}