Dame Jilly Cooper's family and friends have paid tribute to her a year after her death, remembering a woman who brought joy and gin to those around her. Jilly died at the age of 88 in October last year following a fall at her home in Bisley, Gloucestershire.
Daughter Recalls Sloe Gin Sessions
Speaking at Cheltenham Literature Festival, her daughter Emily Tarrant became emotional as she remembered her mother. Emily, 55, said: "I have so many memories. I mean, her laugh, which was just a kind of huge shriek of joy to begin with, and then this kind of dirty little chuckle at the end."
She recalled moments at home: "The time when I used to walk in the kitchen to go and see her, and she was standing by the aga with her hands covered in chicken fat because she was fed with the dog's fresh chicken every day." But the memory that stands out most was their late-night drinking sessions. "When everyone else had gone to bed, we used to stay up insisting just one, just one drink, and invariably a lot more than that. We used to sit around the kitchen table and just put the world to rights, really."
These nights would often end in the early hours, but Jilly had a cure. "She always had alka seltzer. Any guest that came to stay, there was a glass of water and Alka Seltzer by the side of the bed. And it was her complete comic."
A Loving Mother and Adopted Children
Jilly had two children with her late husband, Leo Cooper: Emily and her brother Felix, both adopted from an early age. Emily said: "She was definitely not strict. She tried to be, there was a lot of 'wait till your father gets home'. But she wasn't very strict at all. She was loving."
"She used to tell my brother Felix that she loved us every day. We were both adopted from a very young age, and she told us that we were chosen all the time, and how lucky they were that they chose us. It was just an amazing thing. We were enveloped in love and it was just heaven."
Emily and Felix appeared in some of Jilly's journalism for the Sunday Times Magazine when the family lived in Putney, London. They later moved to Bisley, Gloucestershire, where Jilly wrote her famous Rutshire Chronicles series, including Riders and Rivals. She lived there with Leo until his death in 2016.
Joy and Legacy
At a tribute night, her agent Felicity Blunt remembered fruit salads drenched in sloe gin that acted as a truth serum for guests. Felicity said of Jilly's legacy: "Joy. She just brought joy, and her books bring so much joy. And she just really wanted everybody to have the best time."
Felicity added: "She managed to create a party around people, and I don't mean like 100 people attending. She just made you feel like you're at the centre of a party, even if it's just the two of you. And that's definitely true of her writing. It's funny. It's entertaining. It's so smart. It's unpretentious. Yeah, joyful and unpretentious."
Novelist Helen Fielding, author of the Bridget Jones books, said Jilly had inspired her work. "Slightly horrifyingly for today I chose my book for today, Between The Covers, which is a collection of Jilly's first writing in The Sunday Times. I realised she didn't just inspire me, I think I copied the whole of Bridget from her."
Dame Jilly sold more than 11 million books in the UK alone. Queen Camilla led tributes at the time, describing her as a legend and a "wonderfully witty and compassionate friend", adding: "May her hereafter be filled with impossibly handsome men and devoted dogs." Her first book How To Stay Married was published in 1969, and Riders in 1985 began The Rutshire Chronicles, which ran to 11 novels. Rivals, published in 1988, is now a hit Disney+ series, with Season 2, Part 2 premiering on November 11.
