Women of a certain age got their sex education from between her pages

Bonkbuster queen Jilly Cooper, who has died suddenly aged 88 after a fall, revolutionised our reading habits with her saucy, seductive Rutshire Chronicles. But her literary prowess extended far beyond bedroom antics as generations of fans, including Queen Camilla, can attest

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Turner, Victoria Smurfit and Danny Dyer, winning her a new generation of fans. Jilly's stamp on the project was evident, for she was an executive producer, and it is authentically delightful. How proud she must have been to see what is commonly accepted to be the best of her books on the small screen.

Between Jilly and Jackie Collins, women of a certain age got their sex education from between their pages, introduced to impossibly randy heroes with insatiable appetites who would show you an unforgettable time between the sheets. Silk, probably.

But to reduce Jilly to her sex scenes is to underestimate her literary prowess.

Anyone who dismisses her work as fluff hasn't read it. Her command of her material, her language, her characters, are second to none.

You are instantly propelled into the world she is creating, whether it's showjumping, television or opera, her impeccable research lightly worn but her accuracy razor sharp in every detail. You fall hard and fast for her heroes, whether it's Campbell-Black or arrogant maestro Rannaldini, swept along by the lusciousness of her prose, her superlative powers of description, peppered with quotes from Shakespeare or Tennyson, for she was nothing if not well-read.

Jilly Sallitt was born in Hornchurch, Essex, in February 1937, the daughter of a soldier, Brigadier WB Sallitt. However, she grew up in the Dales, in Ilkley, where the local pony club loomed large. She was educated at the Godolphin School in Salisbury, after which she learnt to type in Oxford, getting her first job aged 20 as a reporter on the Middlesex Independent in Brentford. She married military publisher Leo Cooper in 1961, and later they adopted a son and a daughter.