Author Jilly Cooper dies at 88

Novelist Dame Jilly Cooper, known for her best-selling books including Rivals and Riders, has died at the age of 88.

Dame Jilly’s most successful works were The Rutshire Chronicles, beginning with Riders in 1985, which portrayed the scandals, sex lives and social circles of the wealthy country set.

Follow-up Rivals was published in 1988 and was turned into a hit Disney+ TV series last year. She sold more than 11 million books in total in the UK alone.

In a statement, her children Felix and Emily said: “Mum was the shining light in all of our lives. Her love for all of her family and friends knew no bounds. Her unexpected death has come as a complete shock.”

They added: “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.”

She died on Sunday morning after a fall, a statement from her publisher said.

Her agent Felicity Blunt remeberend the writer as “emotionally intelligent, fantastically generous, sharply observant and utter fun”.

Blunt added: “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.”