English author Jilly Cooper dies at age 88

English author Dame Jilly Cooper has died at age 88, her family has announced.

The author was best known for The Rutshire Chronicles, including the second book in the series, Rivals, which was recently adapted into a Disney+ series starring David Tennant.

Cooper’s novels were known for their glamorous settings, complex characters and romantic entanglements, starting in the world of British equestrianism and high society.

Her books were often called “bonkbusters” but Cooper much preferred the phrase “low morals and high fences”, she told the BBC in 2024.

Her death was made public with a statement from her children, Felix and Emily, who said her death came as a “complete shock”.

“We are so proud of everything she achieved in her life and can’t begin to imagine life without her infectious smile and laughter all around us,” they said in a statement.

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

“Jilly will undoubtedly be best remembered for her chart-topping series The Rutshire Chronicles and its havoc-making and handsome show-jumping hero Rupert Campbell-Black,” she said.

“You wouldn’t expect books categorised as bonkbusters to have so emphatically stood the test of time but Jilly wrote with acuity and insight about all things — class, sex, marriage, rivalry, grief and fertility.

“Her plots were both intricate and gutsy, spiked with sharp observations and wicked humour.

“She regularly mined her own life for inspiration and there was something Austenesque about her dissections of society, its many prejudices and norms.”

Columnist who became bestseller

Cooper was born in Essex in 1937, hailing from a well-known Yorkshire family.

Her great-great-grandfather founded local newspaper The Leeds Mercury and was Liberal MP for Leeds.

Her writing career began in 1956 when she got a job as a cub reporter on the Middlesex Independent.

She then became a regular columnist in The Sunday Times Magazine, then The Mail on Sunday, from the 1960s until the late 1980s.

Her first book, How To Stay Married, was written in 1969. Over the course of her career, Cooper wrote more than 40 other books.

Riders, published in 1985, went straight to number one on the bestseller lists, as did Rivals, published in 1988.

Her follow-up books in The Rutshire Chronicles all sold millions of copies worldwide.

Cooper was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2004, before also being appointed a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 2018 and Dame in 2024.

Her many fans included Queen Camilla and former British prime minister Rishi Sunak, who said the books offered “escapism”.

- Agencies