THE author and journalist Dame Jilly Cooper, best known for her series of novels, sadly died unexpectedly aged 88 after a fall at her home in the Cotswolds on October 5th.

I first met Jilly over 20 years ago, when she was in Ireland doing research on horseracing for one of her books titled Mount. She was fascinated by charterers in the horsey world and she asked me for a copy of my book Horse Tales & Hunt Talk in which I featured over 30 equestrian characters with amusing stories about their lives. In the meantime, we corresponded with each other, she giving me her latest news and we exchanged Christmas cards and books.

As a dog lover, her most recent Christmas cards featured her beloved greyhound Bluebell and she was distraught when she passed away in 2021. She had a love affair with the countryside and particularly the Cotswolds where she lived and supported the preservation of limestone grasslands and nature conservation. She also supported World Horse Welfare and campaigned to end long-distance transport of horses to slaughter. She was patron of a number of charities and was active in the initiative of erecting a Memorial to Animals in War in Park Lane in 2004. Always original, she even started a discussion in 2013 on the merits of having a mongrel class at Crufts Dog Show! A keen football fan, she supported both Leeds and Manchester City.

She was a gentle lady, a charmer with an engaging smile, a keen observer of people and a true exponent of managing to inform, educate and entertain readers of her vast work.

Born in Essex, Jilly Sallitt started her journalistic career as a cub reporter in the Middlesex Independent, wrote short stories for various magazines including Cosmopolitan, then The Mail on Sunday.

She married Leo Cooper, who was in publishing, in 1961 and she was distraught to lose him to Parkinson’s Disease after over 50 years of marriage in 2013. They got great joy and fulfilment in adopting their son and daughter, Felix and Emily. Jilly survived near death in the Paddington Rail Crash in 1999, but she was relieved as she managed to rescue a manuscript that she was working on as she climbed through a broken window to escape.

She once said that she was sacked from over 20 jobs, but found her true vocation when she concentrated on being an author with immediate success worldwide selling 11 million copies of her books in the UK alone. Her first book probably was inspired by her Sunday Times features as it was titled, How to Stay Married in 1969, and How to Survive from 9-5. This was followed by a series of novels, Riders in 1985 that featured her central character, Olympic show jumper Rupert Campbell-Black that was adapted for TV, then Rivals in 1988 that was also adapted by Disney. Polo in 1991 and The Man who Made Husbands Jealous in 1993, which was seen on TV also. These were followed by Jump in 2010 then Mount in 2016, Tacklein 2023 and others including Score in 1999 and Appassionata in 1996, in all amounting to 20 novels.

One fascinating feature she penned was on ageing for The Sunday Timeswhere she shared her observations on recognising signs of slowing down in a very humorous way and the public’s respect for the condition. She had a mantra that she shared, that people could be glorious in old age, that life was not restricted to the young, emphasising themes such as the importance of humour, connection, love and laughter.

In her lifetime, she received numerous awards including being conferred a Dame of the British Empire for her service to literature, and was nominated for a BAFTA Award, a British Books Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Comedy Women in Print Award.