Author Dame Jilly Cooper, affectionately known as “the queen of the bonkbuster”, will be remembered for her saucy storytelling and mischievous sense of humour following a career that spanned more than six decades. Best known for her steamy fiction exploring scandal and adultery within Britain’s upper classes, she sold over 11 million books in the UK alone, according to her official website. Her debut in the Rutshire Chronicles, Riders (1985), was included in the BBC’s list of 100 important English-language novels in the “love, sex and romance” category, alongside Pride and Prejudice. Reflecting on her success after being made a dame, Cooper said she always wanted to write “happy books”, adding that her main goal was “to cheer people up” through humour.
++ The scientific experiment that raised a human baby and a chimpanzee side by side
Born in Hornchurch, Essex, in 1937, and raised in Yorkshire, Cooper attended the private Godolphin School in Salisbury. Her father, a brigadier, moved the family to London in the 1950s, where she began her career as a reporter for The Middlesex Independent at the age of 20. After several unsuccessful roles in public relations—she claimed to have been dismissed from 22 jobs—she eventually found her way into publishing. Her big break came in 1968, when The Sunday Times Magazine editor Godfrey Smith commissioned her to write for the publication, leading to a popular column in which she wrote candidly about sex, marriage and domestic life.
Her first book, How to Stay Married, soon followed, and during the 1970s she transformed her magazine pieces into romantic novels such as Emily, Bella, Imogen, Prudence, Harriet and Octavia, as well as the short story collection Lisa & Co. Both Riders and Rivals (1988) topped bestseller lists, with Polo (1991) becoming the highest-selling hardback novel of the year. Rivals, set against the backdrop of the Cotswolds during the 1980s, was adapted into an award-winning Disney+ drama in 2024 starring David Tennant and Danny Dyer. Recognised with a lifetime achievement award at the 1998 British Book Awards, Cooper later received a CBE for services to literature and charity in the 2018 New Year Honours and was made a dame in 2023, describing the experience of receiving the honour from the King as “orgasmic”.
++ Trump administration indicts former FBI chief James Comey
A lifelong animal lover, Cooper was a patron of numerous charities and helped to establish the Animals in War Memorial Fund in 1998, which led to the unveiling of a memorial in Park Lane in 2004. Outspoken on matters of sexual politics, she was known for her unapologetic wit and commentary, once suggesting that her famous fictional rogue Rupert Campbell-Black “would be locked up” in today’s climate. Despite her occasional controversies, she remained one of Britain’s most beloved authors, admired for her warmth, humour and distinctive portrayal of the country’s privileged classes. Cooper continued writing on her trusty manual typewriter, affectionately named Monica, until her final novel, Tackle!, published in 2023.
