The Queen has paid tribute to author Dame Jilly Cooper, who has died at the age of 88, describing her as a “legend” and a “wonderfully witty and compassionate friend to me and so many”.
Cooper, the author of “bonkbusters” including Rivals, Riders and Polo, has died after a fall at the age of 88.
Her children Felix and Emily said her death on Sunday morning has come as a “complete shock”.
The Queen said in a message: “I was so saddened to learn of Dame Jilly’s death last night.
“Very few writers get to be a legend in their own lifetime but Jilly was one, creating a whole new genre of literature and making it her own through a career that spanned over five decades.
“In person she was a wonderfully witty and compassionate friend to me and so many – and it was a particular pleasure to see her just a few weeks ago at my Queen’s Reading Room Festival where she was, as ever, a star of the show.
“I join my husband the King in sending our thoughts and sympathies to all her family. And may her hereafter be filled with impossibly handsome men and devoted dogs.”
The message was signed “Camilla R”.
The sad news of Dame Jilly’s death was announced by her children on Monday morning.
A statement said: “Mum was the shining light in all of our lives. Her love for all of her family and friends knew no bounds.
“Her unexpected death has come as a complete shock. 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.”
Dame Jilly was best known for her books in The Rutshire Chronicles, featuring the showjumping lothario Rupert Campbell-Black.
One of the books, Rivals, was recently adapted for television by Disney+.
Her agent Felicity Blunt said: “The privilege of my career has been working with a woman who has defined culture, writing and conversation since she was first published over fifty years ago.
“Jilly will undoubtedly be best remembered for her chart-topping series The Rutshire Chronicles and its havoc-making and handsome show-jumping hero Rupert Campbell-Black.
“You wouldn’t expect books categorised as bonkbusters to have so emphatically stood the test of time but Jilly wrote with acuity and insight about all things – class, sex, marriage, rivalry, grief and fertility.
“Her plots were both intricate and gutsy, spiked with sharp observations and wicked humour. She regularly mined her own life for inspiration and there was something Austenesque about her dissections of society, its many prejudices and norms. But if you tried to pay her this compliment, or any compliment, she would brush it aside.
“She wrote, she said, simply ‘to add to the sum of human happiness’. In this regard as a writer she was and remains unbeatable.
“In her last few years Jilly added to her curriculum vitae by serving as an executive producer on the Happy Prince adaptation of her novel Rivals for Disney+. Her suggestions for story and dialogue inevitably layered and enhanced scripts and her presence on set was a joy for cast and crew alike.
“Emotionally intelligent, fantastically generous, sharply observant and utter fun Jilly Cooper will be deeply missed by all at Curtis Brown and on the set of Rivals.
“I have lost a friend, an ally, a confidante and a mentor. But I know she will live forever in the words she put on the page and on the screen.”
Dame Jilly’s first novel in the Rutshire series, Riders, was published in 1985.
