Jilly Cooper

Jilly was born Jilly Sallitt, in Yorkshire in 1937. Her parents were middle class, and gave her a good education. After school, she got a job as a junior reporter and also worked at other writing type jobs like publishing. She loved puns and humour and soon got a column in a paper where she wrote about sex marriage, class and housework. She married in 1962 to a Yorkshire man, Leo Cooper who was a publisher of military books and history. He was divorced. They lived in Putney and Wimbledon, and after some years they moved out to the country. She and Leo adopted a son and a daughter. She had begun to write short romantic novels, which were sexier than had been common, at that stage. In the early 80s she began to write longer books, which she called bonk busters. They were set in glamorous worlds like show jumping, opera and the like, and were about the messy personal lives of the characters. She also compiled books about poetry and literature about love and marriage. She and Leo lived in Gloucestershire, and became friends with the horsey set there, including Camilla Parker Bowles. Jilly was a supporter of the Conservative Party in the 80s. Her marriage had its ups and downs. Leo was revealed as having had a long affair with another publisher and Jilly split up with him, but after a time they reconciled. Her books sold well and some were made into TV serials. She was warm hearted and kindly, and well liked. She loved animals and country life and some of her books were about her dogs and living near Wimbledon common where she walked them. Her husband died in 2013 and Jilly herself died a few weeks ago, after a fall, at the age of 88