EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW AND PHOTOS
ON WINNING FORM JILLY COOPER
ON TACKLING A NEW THEME, HER REAL-LIFE INSPIR ATIONS AND HER FRIENDSHIP WITH THE QUEEN
‘I was looking for a new subject. Sir Alex Ferguson was so gorgeous that after meeting him, I just got going’
Jilly joins her five grandchildren – (from left) Lysander, 17, Jago, 19, Sienna, 12, Acer, 15, and Scarlett, 14 – as they play football in the grounds of her 14th-century Cotswolds home
The mere mention of Jilly Cooper’s name provokes an amusing chain reaction: a knowing smile, a twinkle in the eye, flushed cheeks.
As the unrivalled queen of romantic, racy fiction set in the imaginary county of Rutshire, she has been dreaming up bestsellers for decades, all of them with scandalous plots, shocking shenanigans and an assortment of handsome cads and bullish bounders from the posh polo set.
And as she exclusively invites us to join her and her five grandchildren at her 14thcentury home in the Cotswolds ahead of the launch of her latest novel, Tackle!, she tells us how she has swapped the polo field for the football pitch and showjumping champions for Premier League stars.
It was, Jilly tells us – as her grandsons Jago, 19, Lysander, 17, and Acer, 15, and granddaughters Scarlett, 14, and Sienna, 12, kick a ball around the lawn of her country garden – former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson who inspired her change of direction.