Dame Jilly Cooper has died after suffering a fall, aged 88.
News of Cooper’s death was announced by her agent, with her children Felix and Emily stating: “Her unexpected death has come as a complete shock.”
The Rivals author, who wrote The Rutshire Chronicles book series, sold more than 11 million copies of her books in the UK.
Her children hailed Cooper as “a shining light in our lives”, stating: “Her love for all of her family and friends knew no bounds.
“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.”
Cooper, who started out as a journalist, became an author in the 1960s, with her first book, How to Stay Married, being published in 1969.
Her early non-fiction work focused on relationships between men and women to the backdrop of an upper-middle-class existence – themes that would carry over to her fiction work.
Cooper started writing fiction novels in the 1970s after scoring a six-book contract that led to the popular Romance series. Each book was named after a female character, including Emily, Octavia and Imogen, and they drew comparisons to the works of esteemed author Nancy Mitford.
Her best-known books arrived with The Rutshire Chronicles franchise, which included 1985 novel Riders as well as Rivals, which was made into a hit TV series starring David Tennant in 2024.
The book series, also including Polo and The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous, focuses on characters’ domestic lives, and their experience of betrayal and infidelity. The most recent instalment, Tackle!, was published in 2023.
Cooper’s first version of Riders, written 15 years vefore the book’s eventual publication, went missing after she left the manuscript on a bus. The ordeal was so “devastating” that it took Cooper 10 years to start writing it again.
While Cooper’s books were aimed predominantly at adults, she also created the children’s books series Little Mabel (1980-85), about the misadventures of a young puppy.
