Celebrating the work of Dame Jilly Cooper with our favourite novels by the author
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Dame Jilly Cooper is famous in the equestrian world for creating the Rutshire Chronicles series but she wrote a total of 44 books in her lifetime, selling more than 11 million copies around the world. On hearing the sad news that Dame Jilly passed away yesterday (5 October), the team at Horse & Hound took some time to reminisce about our favourite Jilly Cooper books.
As an equestrian, it’s frustrating when books and TV don’t get the minor details correct when it comes to horses and horse sport, but with Jilly’s novels this is never the case. She once told H&H this was because “I don’t have a very good imagination, I like to have been there” and that she “used to go all over the country and abroad with the incredibly glamorous Harvey Smith, David Broome and the Whitakers for my research”.
Whether based in equestrian sport or elsewhere, the Rutshire Chronicles certainly live up to their “bonkbuster” reputation, and you can’t help but warm to Jilly’s wonderful characters as they deal with matters of class, sex, marriage, rivalry, grief and fertility along the way. As her agent and friend Felicity Blunt said: “Jilly wrote with acuity and insight about all things. Her plots were both intricate and gutsy, spiked with sharp observations and wicked humour.”
They’re certainly a must-read for anyone looking for entertaining horsey fiction with added spice – and are as enjoyable now as when we first read them.
H&H’s pick of the best Jilly Cooper books
1. Riders
This is Jilly’s first book and was published in 1969. Riders is our first introduction to the famous Rupert Campbell-Black, and the first of the Rutshire Chronicles series – and by many accounts the steamiest. This one is a standout favourite among the team.
“It’s the original and best,” says magazine and eventing editor Pippa Roome. “It’s such a huge and sprawling book covering a long time period, with a huge amount of detail around the human and equine characters. It’s a rich immersion in the showjumping world, from county shows through to the World Championships and the Olympics.”
2. Polo
This is the third in the series (published in 1991), but is still a great place to start if you haven’t read any. Rather than showjumping, this book is set around the sport of kings in the 1980s – and very accurately so. Some readers may find teen character Perdita MacLeod rather infuriating, but it’s well worth sticking with Polo as it all comes right in the end.
3. Score!
The sixth in the series has all the usual bits of a Jilly Cooper novel, but with the added twist of a murder mystery. Score! features Sir Robert Rannaldini, who is the most successful but detested conductor in the world. He has two ambitions: to seduce his ravishing 19-year-old stepdaughter Tabitha Campbell-Black and to put his mark on musical history.
“Jilly’s early romances are such feel-good chick lit and I love the ‘whodunnit’ Score! – it was brilliant and really keeps you guessing!” says news editor Eleanor Jones.
4. Rivals
The second Rutshire Chronicle is the perfect entry to a world of Jilly Cooper – especially if you don’t consider yourself much of a reader as this was turned into a series for Disney+ last year. As always, however, you do get so much more if you read the book! Failing that, there’s also a new audio book read by actress Georgia Tennant (wife of David Tennant, who plays Lord Tony Baddingham).
The book is set in the cut-throat world of 1980s British television; Rupert Campbell-Black returns in Rivals freshly divorced, having given up on showjumping (although there is still plenty of horses and riding involved) and he is now the Conservative Party’s minister for sport. Want to give it a go? Here’s how to watch Rivals.
Rutshire Chronicles order
Of course, if you want to read the Rutshire Chronicles in order, here’s where to start:
You may also be interested in:
A ‘shining light’ has gone out: farewell to national treasure Dame Jilly Cooper, aged 88
When H&H met the fun, flirty and simply fabulous Dame Jilly Cooper: ‘I just love horses – I go and talk to them on my walks’
How to watch Jilly Cooper’s Rivals on TV from locations around the world