Jilly Cooper's life - train crash, husband's affair, royal ex who inspired books

29 December 2023 , 22:40

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She will now be referred to as Dame Jilly Cooper (Image: Getty Images)

Jilly Cooper is famous for her raunchy Rutshire novels and will now be known as a Dame in honour of her services to literature.

The 86-year-old author was appointed OBE in the 2004 Birthday Honours, became Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2018 New Year Honours and six years later, has been awarded again in the 2024 list with the honorific title. Jilly, formerly a journalist, became a prominent figure in the mid-70s when she published her first romance story.

She shot to fame in the 80s with bestsellers Riders and Rivals - as part of her Rutshire chronicles - and is still going decades and countless works later. Just months ago she published her latest novel Tackle. But how much of her fiction is based on events in her reality? Here, we take a look at her wild life from escaping a devastating train crash to her complicated marriage.

Jilly Cooper when she was starting out as a novelist in 1978 (Mirrorpix)

The author after she was awarded her Commander of the British Empire (CBE) medal (Getty Images)

Jilly, who was born in Essex but grew up in Yorkshire, worked as a journalist before penning novels. Her big break was when the editor of The Sunday Times Magazine, Godfrey Smith, asked her to write about her experiences at a dinner party. She ended up with a column in which she wrote about the trials and tribulations of sex, marriage, and housework - which led to her first book How to Stay Married in 1969. Jilly had married military book publisher Leo Cooper at the age of 24 in 1961.

The pair knew each other as children and reunited in their twenties. Unable to have their own children, they adopted two. Sadly, Jilly experienced the fallout from infidelity first-hand when their marriage was rocked after Leo had an affair with publisher Sarah Johnson.

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It had gone on for years and Sarah claimed she was driven to confess after seeing Jilly continuously 'boast' about her perfect relationship. In a bid to start afresh, Jilly and Leo rekindled their romance and moved from London to the Gloucestershire countryside in the '80s. Her writing went from strength to strength with her favoured novels, which follow the hedonistic exploits of the upper class that have often been inspired by aristocrats.

The steamy books are a 'guilty pleasure' for many fans, including Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who said they help him chill out. There is also secrecy around Jilly's characters, as she has felt the need to be extra cautious when naming them so that they can't be associated with anyone in real life.

Instead, she has used a mix of towns and villages to come up with surnames. "You have to be very careful not to use real people's names by mistake, as they might sue you if they behave badly in the story," she told the Telegraph. One of the characters Jilly has revealed the inspiration behind is Campbell-Black, from Riders. The stud, who charms both stable girls and wives, is said to be influenced by Queen Camilla's ex Andrew Parker Bowles, fashion designer Rupert Lycett-Green and the Earl of Suffolk.

And as an avid football fan, her latest Tackle! was influenced by Sir Alex Ferguson. Speaking on This Morning, Jilly revealed she had a long and boozy lunch with the former Manchester United boss, adding: "We chatted and chatted and chatted and it was so funny, we had such giggles. I told him a naughty joke, and he got out his diary and wrote it down because he wanted to use it later. Afterwards, I decided to write a novel about football."

Her latest work Tackle!

As a dashing young cavalry officer, Andrew Parker Bowles inspired raunchy novelist Jilly Cooper to create one of her most legendary characters (PA)

But has she drawn from her own sex life for her scenes of debauchery? Speaking with the Guardian when asked about the key to writing a good sex scene, she admitted she reminisces about intimate times with her late husband. She said: "Make the people glamorous and create an atmosphere of excitement.

"You have to imagine you're having it with somebody. I had a heavenly husband [publisher Leo Cooper] who died 10 years ago and he was wonderful at sex. So I used to just imagine what we'd been up to." Their union had more to it than a physical connection, as Jilly once said the secret to a happy marriage was: "Creaking bed springs – from laughter, rather than sex."

Alongside her success, there have been some tragic lows for Jilly, one being the time she escaped a horrifying train crash. She was a passenger in one of the derailed carriages in the Ladbroke Grove rail crash of 1999. The writer managed to crawl through a window to escape, but sadly 31 people were left dead.

She has also had to deal with the heartbreak of losing Leo, who died aged 79 in 2013. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2002, and in a 2010 interview, Jilly lifted the lid on caring for him. Just six weeks after suffering from a mini-stroke herself, she told The National: "Everyone is asking me why I keep on writing and I think it's a bit sad that it always comes out that I write to pay the bills. That is not entirely true. I actually love the writing process.

"But the fact is that Leo isn't very well and his round-the-clock care bills are horrific. It's probably about £100,000 a year to pay for full-time carers, and that's one reason why I've got to go on writing pretty hard. We are lucky we have heavenly carers. I've got to keep on writing but it's not a problem because I love doing it."

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