Jilly Cooper, British author of bestselling risqué novels including 'Rivals', dies at 88

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LONDON (AP) — Jilly Cooper, the bestselling British author known for her chronicles of class and sex in risqué novels, including “Rivals” and “Riders,” has died, her agent and family said Monday. She was 88.

The author died Sunday after a fall, said a statement from literary agency Curtis Brown, who represented her.

“Mum was the shining light in all of our lives,” her children, Felix and Emily, wrote. “Her unexpected death has come as a complete shock.”

Queen Camilla, the wife of King Charles III, called Cooper “a legend” and recalled seeing the author recently at a book festival.

“I join my husband the King in sending our thoughts and sympathies to all her family. And may her hereafter be filled with impossibly handsome men and devoted dogs,” Camilla wrote.

Cooper was best known for “The Rutshire Chronicles" series of novels, beginning with “Riders" in 1985, which portrayed the sex lives and excesses of the well-off, horse-riding upper and middle classes in 1980s England.

One of the books, “Rivals,” was turned into a hit Disney+ TV series last year starring David Tennant and Alex Hassell.

Bill Scott-Kerr, her publisher, praised Cooper for her “wicked social commentary and deft, lacerating characterization."

“She dissected the behavior, bad mostly, of the English upper middle classes with the sharpest of scalpels,” he said.

Her agent, Felicity Blunt, said Cooper “defined culture, writing and conversation since she was first published over 50 years ago.”

“Emotionally intelligent, fantastically generous, sharply observant and utter fun, Jilly Cooper will be deeply missed by all at Curtis Brown and on the set of ‘Rivals,’” she added.

Born in 1937 in Essex, near London, Cooper cut her teeth in journalism at a local newspaper in Brentford, covering everything from parties to soccer.

Her big break came in 1969 when The Sunday Times published an entertaining piece she wrote on the difficulties of being a young working wife. She went on to become a columnist for the newspaper for over 13 years.

Her first book, “How to Stay Married,’’ was published in 1969, followed by some 18 novels and short fiction as well as over 20 nonfiction works. Her most recent, “Tackle!”, was published in 2023. “The Rutshire Chronicles” sold millions of copies in the U.K. alone.

Cooper was awarded an OBE, or Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for services to literature in 2004. Her many fans included former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who said the books offered “escapism.”