The second series of Rivals has put Jilly Cooper's brand of saucy jollity back on screen, but what is her bonkbuster nonpareil? From racy riders to romantic rivals, here are her best books ranked.
10. Tackle! (2023)
In the last of Jilly Cooper's Rutshire Chronicles, Rupert Campbell-Black, now 67, navigates life as a loving husband. Taggie faces cancer, a rare brush with mortality in the series. Cooper did 15 months of rewrites after sensitivity reader input, but it remains unflinching on class. Bianca, Rupert and Taggie's daughter, falls for a footballer, and her father buys a local club to keep them close, leading to improbable league successes that lift the heart.
9. Appassionata (1996)
This shadow-boxing instalment sidelines Rupert, focusing on his son Marcus, who is engaged to violinist Abigail Rosen but is secretly gay. The hero, Viking O'Neill, is hot, but the book's salvation lies in Cooper's portrayal of upper-class familial cruelties. Densely researched classical music adds depth, but skipping it reduces the book to a manageable 400 pages.
8. Octavia (1977)
A rare bad-girl heroine, Octavia is rich and selfish, stealing friends' boyfriends until she meets Gareth, a salt-of-the-earth man. Subtitled The Taming of the Shrew, it is more an Enid Blyton-style romp than a feminist tale, but the yarn is cracking.
7. The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous (1993)
The difficult fourth Rutshire novel sidelines Rupert for Lysander Hawkley, a love interest paid to pretend affairs to make husbands jealous. It feels transactional, but Cooper's worship of sex for its own sake shines through.
6. Class: A View from Middle England (1979)
A nonfiction work with fictional characters like Harry Stow-Crat and Jen Teale. The working-class caricature fails, but Cooper's eye for upper-class vanities is sharp, akin to David Attenborough.
5. Jump! (2010)
In the ninth Rutshire novel, the heroine is a horse, Mrs. Wilkinson, who possesses beauty and breeding beneath a surface flaw. Classic Jilly: horses are humans, only better.
4. Imogen (1978)
The final Romance series novel features a self-effacing heroine, Imogen, who catches tennis ace Nicky Beresford's eye. The central conflict is her disbelief: "What can he possibly see in me?"
3. Rivals (1988)
The second Rutshire novel is a scrum of characters, from Irish Declan and Maud to their daughters Caitlin and Taggie. It floods the senses like Times Square, with cheap men good with money and real men bad.
2. Polo (1991)
The third Rutshire novel centres on polo, with Ricky France-Lynch, who killed his son, and Perdita, a troubled polo talent. Sporting triumphs are nail-biting, and true love blossoms when focused on sport.
1. Riders (1985)
The first sighting of Rupert Campbell-Black reveals a horrible character, a handsome version of Nigel Farage with a horse. His only saving grace is kindness to animals, but the romance beats are perfect: chase, catch, highs, lows, and the ungovernable human heart.
