Laughter as Queen shares Dame Jilly's 'immortal line'

THE Queen had an audience in hysterics as she quoted an “immortal line” from Dame Jilly Cooper and paid a public tribute to her “much-missed” friend.

- JORDAN REYNOLDS

Camilla opened the eighth Cliveden Literary Festival on Saturday and gave a speech in which she spoke about the author, known as “queen of the bonkbuster”, who has died at the age of 88.

She said Dame Jilly had attended a party at Cliveden House a few years ago, adding that she hoped the author had “uttered her immortal line: ‘I’m going to get absolutely plastered tonight, darling. I love you so much, I want to see two of you.”

The quote was met with laughter from those watching, before the Queen added: “Dear Jilly, how we'd love to see just one of you here today.”

Camilla was among the first to pay tribute to Dame Jilly following her death after a fall last Sunday, describing her as a “legend” and a “wonderfully witty and compassionate friend to me and so many”.

The pair were longstanding friends, and the author based her fictional seducer and showjumping lothario Rupert Campbell-Black partly on the Queen's ex-husband Andrew Parker Bowles.