Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on October 6, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
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British author Jilly Cooper, famed for her novels of sex and snobbery, has died at 88. Known for 'Riders', she sold 11 million books in Britain.
LONDON (Reuters) -Jilly Cooper, the British author of novels such as "Rivals" and "Riders" whose 1980s best-sellers were a blend of sex, satire and British snobbery, has died aged 88, her agent Curtis Brown said in a statement on Monday.
Cooper sold 11 million copies of her books in Britain alone. From the mid-1980s, her raunchy novels depicting the romantic adventures of an upper-class set of characters in the fictional county of Rutshire gained increasing commercial success.
Born in Essex in 1937, Cooper was a newspaper columnist for the Sunday Times in the 1960s, writing about marriage, sex and housework.
She started writing novels in the 1970s, but it wasn't until Riders in 1985 that she had her breakthrough.
At the centre of that book was her character Rupert Campbell-Black, a handsome showjumper and womaniser, and it was her blend of wealthy rural aristocrats bed-hopping alongside sharp observations of Britain's class system which helped make the books so popular.
Rivals found a new generation of fans when it was made into a series for Disney+ in 2024.
A dog-lover, she was married to Leo Cooper in 1961 and they had two children. He died in 2013.
(Reporting by Sarah Young and Sam Tabahriti; Editing by Kate Holton, Alexandra Hudson)
A best-seller is a book that sells a large number of copies, often ranking high on sales charts. Jilly Cooper's novels, such as 'Riders' and 'Rivals', were best-sellers in the 1980s.
A character is a person or figure in a story, novel, or play. Rupert Campbell-Black is a central character in Jilly Cooper's novel 'Riders'.
A literary legacy refers to the lasting impact and influence an author has through their works. Jilly Cooper's novels have left a significant legacy in British literature.
Satire is a genre of literature that uses humor, irony, or exaggeration to criticize or mock individuals, institutions, or society. Jilly Cooper's novels often blend satire with romance.
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