Jilly Cooper, romance author who wrote 'Rivals,' dies at 88

Jilly Cooper — who has died aged 88 — was the bestselling British writer whose racy novels were famously filled with fun. With suggestive titles such as “Tackle!”, “Mount!” and “Score!”, Cooper's books were publishing sensations, selling II million copies in the UK alone. Her agent Felicity Blunt said on Monday that “she will live forever in the words she put on the page and on the screen... I have lost a friend, an ally, a confidante and a mentor.”

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Described by one interviewer as “flirty and quite frankly a riot,” she inspired deep affection and loyalty from her fans. Former British Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak professed himself “a genuine fan” in 2023, adding: “You have to have escapism in your life.” A 2024 hit adaptation of “Rivals” on Disney+ brought its dashing and caddish hero Rupert Campbell-Black — said to be partly based on Queen Camilla’s former husband Andrew Parker Bowles — to a new audience. “Most television now is all crimes and murders,” Cooper said ahead of the release of the series, in which she even appeared very briefly. “People like love stories to cheer them up. And that’s what I've always wanted to do: cheer people up.” Cooper was born Jill Sallitt on Feb.21, 1937 into a well-known family from the Yorkshire region of northern England. Her great grandfather was a regional newspaper proprietor and lawmaker. She began her writing career on a local newspaper before taking a long