In 1961 she married publisher Leo Cooper, who came from Long Preston, whom she had first met in Yorkshire in 1948. They have two children, Felix and Emily, and five grandchildren, Jago, Lysander, Acer, Scarlett and Sienna. They lived in an old house in the Cotswolds, which they moved to in 1982 and where Leo died in 2013.
Jilly had already started writing stories for women’s magazines when in 1968 she met Godfrey Smith the editor of The Sunday Times Colour Magazine at a dinner party. He invited her to write a piece for him on the difficulties of being a young working wife; as well as being typically outrageous; it was very funny and, as a result, The Sunday Times took her on as a regular columnist. Subsequently she established a remarkable following among Sunday Times readers whom she delighted regularly over thirteen and a half years with a range of memorably entertaining pieces, together with a series of more serious interviews that included Mrs Thatcher, Dame Rebecca West, George Best, Jill Bennett and Sacheverill Sitwell. Her Sunday Times pieces and many others were published in several volumes, and were regularly syndicated abroad in South Africa and Australasia. In 1982 she left The Sunday Times and joined The Mail on Sunday for whom she wrote a bi-monthly column until 1987.
Her first book, How To Stay Married, was written in 1969. She went on to write and help to compile 44 other books. She appeared on radio and television, including What’s My Line, which regularly achieved 14 million viewers. In 1970 she also wrote a TV series about four girls in a flat entitled It’s Awfully Bad For Your Eyes Darling, in which Joanna Lumley played a starring role.
Jilly’s non-fiction included six collections of pieces from The Sunday Times, a book completed for Heinemann and The Imperial War Museum called Animals In War, which describes the role played by all creatures great and small on the battlefields of the world, a book about her life while living on Putney Common, called The Common Years, a collection of newspaper pieces mostly about her life in Gloucestershire called Turn Right at the Spotted Dog, and two more humorous best-sellers, How to Survive Christmas and How to Survive from 9 to 5. She was also the author of four children’s books about Little Mabel (a mongrel) and a non-fiction study of mongrels called Intelligent and Loyal, a title which was changed to Mongrel Magic when it came out in paperback in 1992. Her most famous non-fiction work, however, was Class, an outrageously irreverent view of the British Class system published in 1979, which went into many editions.
In 1975 Jilly Cooper began to write a series of “permissive” romances based on long magazine stories she had published earlier and these became Emily, Bella, Imogen Prudence, Harriet and Octavia, and a collection of short stories called Lisa &Co - her first fiction in book form. In 1993 she published Araminta’s Wedding, a witty novella of English country life inspired by the paintings of Sue Macartney-Snape.
Her first big novel, Riders, was published in 1985 and went straight to number one in the bestseller lists, as did Rivals published in 1988. Polo, which was published in 1991, was the highest selling hardback novel of the year. The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous, which was published in April of 1993, went straight into the number one position too, and remained there for eight weeks. All of these books sold well over 1 million copies each in their UK editions.
Riders was her first novel to be adapted for a major two part mini-series for television. It achieved an astounding 9 million viewers for the first episode and 15 million for the second. In March 1997 The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous was shown on ITV to similar audiences.
In April 1996, Jilly Cooper’s twelfth novel Appassionata was published by Bantam Press. It received acres of press coverage and was a runaway bestseller, going straight into the number one position on The Sunday Times list - it remained there until 12th May 1996. In 1998, Jilly received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the British Book Awards.
Jilly Cooper’s thirteenth novel Score! was published in May 1999 by Bantam Press. It follows on from Appassionata with many of her best loved characters reappearing, including the irrepressible Rupert Campbell-Black and the arch villain Sir Robert Rannaldini. The Corgi paperback edition was published in March 2000 and went straight to number one, selling over 500,000 copies to date.
Animals in War, Jilly Cooper’s much loved classic depiction of animals in wartime, was reissued in March 2000 to coincide with the launch of the Animals In War Memorial Campaign. Jilly Cooper was one of the patrons of this campaign. A memorial to animals in war was unveiled in Park Lane in November 2004.
Jilly Cooper’s fourteenth novel, Pandora, was published in 2002 and was on the bestseller list for 19 weeks. It is set in the dazzling and glitzy international art world with favourite and much-loved characters such as Rupert Campbell-Black making cameo appearances. Jilly Cooper’s books sold over 11 million copies in the UK alone. Her books were translated into many different languages as well as being published in Australia, New Zealand, and The United States.
Her fifteenth novel Wicked! about an independent boarding school forming a partnership with a comprehensive school, was published in May 2006. It was number one on the bestseller list for five weeks.
Her novel Jump! was about a grandmother, Etta, who, having moved to a Cotswold village, finds escape from her demanding family by rescuing an abandoned and abused filly. Having nursed her back to health, Etta discovers the filly is a seriously good racehorse and forms a syndicate with other village characters to put her into training. To aid her research, Jilly joined a syndicate called Thoroughbred Ladies, who own three horses trained by Tom and Sophie George in the Slad Valley.
Mount!, released in 2016, sold 40,000 copies in its first month and featured Rupert Campbell-Black, centre stage and consumed by one obsession: that Love Rat, his adored grey horse be proclaimed Leading Sire, the champion stallion of the cut throat world of flat racing. Determined to trounce the stallions owned by detested rivals, Rupert is forced to abandon his racing yard and stud and his ravishing wife Taggie in Rutshire and chase winners in the richest races worldwide. As a result, sabotage and sexual shenanigans are as rampant amongst the humans as the horses.
Tackle! was published in 2023, and Rupert Campbell-Black, undefeated racehorse owner and handsomest man in England is in the darkest of places . His adored wife Taggie is about to undergo chemotherapy and his favourite stallion Love Rat has been assassinated and now his daughter Bianca wants him to buy a languishing local football team – a sport Rupert detests – so she can return to Rutshire with her football star husband, and look after Taggie. Rupert’s first impressions of Searston Rovers are distinctly unfavourable, but swayed by Bianca and Taggie he signs the deal. As Searston’s new owner, he won’t settle for anything less than an Everest climb to the top of the Premier League resulting in battles royal with both players and managers. The rival football club, who has a history of foul play, aren’t going to make it easy for him either. Let the skullduggery and scandal begin.
In recent years, the 1988 bestseller Rivals has enjoyed a revival, with the beloved title being adapted as an ongoing series for television by Happy Prince for Disney+. Featuring an all-star cast, the first series was released in 2024 to international acclaim and has been nominated for multiple awards, with filming for Season 2 underway. Jilly served as an executive producer.
She died on Sunday 5th October 2025, following a fall. She was 88 years old and is survived by her children Felix and Emily.
For those who wish to read more, Remembering Jilly Cooper - a tribute published by Penguin - is available here.
