Truly Exquisite! How Jilly Cooper Revolutionized the World – One Steamy Bestseller at a Time
Jilly Cooper, who passed away unexpectedly at the 88 years of age, sold eleven million copies of her assorted grand books over her 50-year career in writing. Cherished by every sensible person over a specific age (45), she was presented to a modern audience last year with the TV adaptation of Rivals.
Cooper's Fictional Universe
Longtime readers would have liked to see the Rutshire chronicles in order: beginning with Riders, initially released in 1985, in which the character Rupert Campbell-Black, cad, philanderer, horse rider, is first introduced. But that’s a side note – what was remarkable about watching Rivals as a box set was how brilliantly Cooper’s universe had remained relevant. The chronicles captured the eighties: the power dressing and voluminous skirts; the fixation on status; aristocrats looking down on the flashy new money, both dismissing everyone else while they snipped about how warm their bubbly was; the sexual politics, with inappropriate behavior and assault so everyday they were virtually figures in their own right, a double act you could count on to advance the story.
While Cooper might have occupied this era totally, she was never the typical fish not noticing the ocean because it’s ubiquitous. She had a compassion and an observational intelligence that you might not expect from listening to her speak. All her creations, from the dog to the equine to her mother and father to her French exchange’s brother, was always “utterly charming” – unless, that is, they were “completely exquisite”. People got harassed and more in Cooper’s work, but that was never acceptable – it’s surprising how tolerated it is in many supposedly sophisticated books of the time.
Social Strata and Personality
She was upper-middle-class, which for real-world terms meant that her parent had to hold down a job, but she’d have defined the strata more by their customs. The middle classes anxiously contemplated about all things, all the time – what society might think, mostly – and the upper classes didn’t care a … well “nonsense”. She was risqué, at times extremely, but her prose was always refined.
She’d describe her childhood in idyllic language: “Dad went to the war and Mom was terribly, terribly worried”. They were both completely gorgeous, engaged in a lifelong love match, and this Cooper emulated in her own marriage, to a editor of historical accounts, Leo Cooper. She was 24, he was 27, the union wasn’t perfect (he was a bit of a shagger), but she was never less than confident giving people the secret for a happy marriage, which is squeaky bed but (big reveal), they’re noisy with all the laughter. He didn't read her books – he picked up Prudence once, when he had a cold, and said it made him feel more ill. She wasn't bothered, and said it was mutual: she wouldn’t be spotted reading military history.
Forever keep a diary – it’s very challenging, when you’re mid-twenties, to recollect what age 24 felt like
Early Works
Prudence (1978) was the fifth book in the Romance series, which commenced with Emily in 1975. If you approached Cooper in reverse, having started in Rutshire, the Romances, also known as “those ones named after affluent ladies” – also Bella and Harriet – were near misses, every hero feeling like a trial version for Campbell-Black, every female lead a little bit weak. Plus, page for page (I haven’t actually run the numbers), there wasn't the same quantity of sex in them. They were a bit reserved on issues of decorum, women always worrying that men would think they’re loose, men saying batshit things about why they liked virgins (similarly, apparently, as a real man always wants to be the initial to unseal a tin of Nescafé). I don’t know if I’d recommend reading these books at a impressionable age. I believed for a while that that was what posh people really thought.
They were, however, extremely well-crafted, high-functioning romances, which is considerably tougher than it seems. You felt Harriet’s unwanted pregnancy, Bella’s difficult relatives, Emily’s remote Scottish life – Cooper could transport you from an desperate moment to a jackpot of the soul, and you could not once, even in the early days, put your finger on how she managed it. Suddenly you’d be laughing at her meticulously detailed descriptions of the sheets, the following moment you’d have emotional response and little understanding how they appeared.
Authorial Advice
Inquired how to be a novelist, Cooper used to say the type of guidance that the famous author would have said, if he could have been inclined to help out a beginner: use all five of your faculties, say how things smelled and seemed and sounded and touched and flavored – it significantly enhances the prose. But probably more useful was: “Constantly keep a diary – it’s very challenging, when you’re 25, to remember what age 24 felt like.” That’s one of the primary realizations you notice, in the more extensive, character-rich books, which have 17 heroines rather than just one lead, all with very upper-class names, unless they’re from the US, in which case they’re called a simple moniker. Even an age difference of four years, between two relatives, between a man and a lady, you can perceive in the dialogue.
A Literary Mystery
The origin story of Riders was so exactly typical of the author it can’t possibly have been true, except it certainly was factual because London’s Evening Standard ran an appeal about it at the period: she wrote the complete book in 1970, long before the Romances, took it into the downtown and forgot it on a vehicle. Some detail has been intentionally omitted of this story – what, for example, was so important in the West End that you would forget the only copy of your book on a train, which is not that unlike leaving your infant on a transport? Undoubtedly an meeting, but which type?
Cooper was inclined to amp up her own disorder and haplessness
