“WHEREVER my son goes, he gets mounted in half an hour,” a mother once casually remarked to Jilly Cooper at a polo match.
That moment sparked an idea in Jilly’s mind: to write a raunchy novel called Riders, which centred around bonking, horses, and scandal.
The book became a runaway best-seller, and the first of a series of racy and thrilling novels that became known as the Rutshire Chronicles, eventually selling a whopping 12 million copies worldwide.
Jilly’s second book in the series, Rivals, has just been adapted into a steamy Disney+ TV show, featuring Emily Atack as one of the lusty characters.
The central role of notorious womaniser Rupert Campbell-Black is played by the hunky Alex Hassell, bringing Jilly’s iconic character to life with charm and mischief.
Tonight, the legendary author’s fascinating real-life story will be told in the first episode of In My Own Words on BBC1 – and it’s as captivating as the tales she’s penned.
With archive recordings, the documentary revisits key moments that shaped her life, including an attempted rape by a then-famous – and unnamed – author.
“I remember when I was in the publishing department,” Jilly shares. “One of the authors took me out for lunch. He was a great, big, gross creature.”
The story takes a dark turn as she describes what happened next.
“Coming back, in the back of the taxi, he suddenly ripped my clothes off – everything off – and I was struggling away,” she says.
“I collapsed into my office, and the managing director saw me and said, ‘Jilly, Jilly, what are you doing? Are you alright? Why are you crying, darling? What happened?’”
But what came next was equally disturbing. When she revealed the name of her attacker, her boss’s response was dismissive.
“‘Oh, that’s one of our authors,’” he replied, brushing the horrific incident under the carpet, leaving Jilly to deal with the trauma alone.
It’s a reminder of how such incidents were often ignored in the workplace, especially when the perpetrator held power or influence.
“He didn’t rape me,” she continues. “But he tried jolly hard. It was horrible and I was a very young junior member of staff, he thought nothing would happen. Everything fed into a later book.”
‘Unholy terror’
Throughout the 45-minute episode, Jilly, now 87, reflects on her journey – from growing up in Yorkshire, where her love for horses, dogs and devilishly handsome men was nurtured, to her early days in journalism and publishing during the 1950s and 1960s.
“I was very naughty at school,” Jilly chuckles.
“I don’t know why I was so naughty. I was known as the unholy terror in the staff room, giggling with friends or writing letters to boys. All I thought about was men. It’s awful, awful, awful.”
Jilly tells how all her friends wanted to “get off” with her handsome brother Timothy.
“He was arrogant and a good game hunter,” she continues.
“My father and Timothy were both very masculine and sure of their qualities. Looked after by women but were the leaders. My father adored my mother.”
In the documentary Jilly revisits the home in Putney she left 42 years ago, where she lived with her late husband Leo, a military books publisher, and their children.
My husband was a lovely man but he fell in love with someone else
Jilly Cooper
Jilly recalls the whirlwind romance with her husband, Leo Cooper, with a smile.
The two had known each other since childhood, but it wasn’t until Jilly was 24 and Leo was 27 that their relationship blossomed after meeting at a dinner party.
“On the first date, we went for dinner,” Jilly fondly remembers. “On our second date, he asked me to marry him, and on our third date, I accepted.”
Jilly says she’s only attracted to men who are attracted to her.
“They must be able to use their eyes – those hard, lingering stares that set the electricity crackling.”
This house was the backdrop to her early success in the late 1960s, when she penned a Sunday Times column about marriage, sex, and society.
Her writing was famed for its candour and humour and was considered revolutionary and ahead of its time, tackling subjects that were often taboo back then.
In 1975 Jilly worked at a teen magazine and began to write short stories for them, which were later turned into romance books called Emily, Bella, Imogen, Prudence, Harriet and Octavia and a collection of short stories called Lisa &Co.
“They wanted stories which were exciting and fun,” Jilly explains. “During this time, fiction was difficult, you couldn’t mention any part below the neck and above the knees.
“The editor said you’re a lousy editor and you can’t find any good stories but this is quite good and we’d like to publish it.
“For a writer it’s like having an orgasm being published,” she laughs. “I always take a diary with me to write quotes down. Some won’t end up anywhere, others will end up in my novels.”
‘Always broke’
In 1985, Jilly Cooper’s life took a wild turn with the release of Riders – a gloriously naughty, sexy, and downright cheeky bonkbuster that became an instant bestseller.
The story followed the glamorous lives of horsey wives and serial shagger Rupert Campbell-Black, a character Jilly cheekily admits was inspired by “four very, very grand, gorgeous men who I met and thought: ‘Gosh, I’ll put a bit of that in a book.’”
I’m 86 now and have forgotten how to do it! It’s quite difficult to write sex scenes…
Jilly Cooper
“All my heroes are macho,” Jilly quips. “They’re strong and brave, and if a woman is being stupid, they’ll tell her she’s being stupid. They don’t get pushed around as much as they do now!”
The racy romp flew off the shelves and saved Jilly from financial ruin. “We’d moved from Putney to the Cotswolds to finish Riders, and we were always broke,” she confesses.
“When the book got published, our bank manager said, ‘Lovely little property, what a tragedy you have to sell it, and don’t think your dirty little book will get you out of it.’ But it did! We went to Coutts (bank) after that.”
But while Jilly’s career was riding high, her personal life hit the rocks. In 1990, she discovered her beloved husband, Leo, had been having a six-year affair with glamorous publisher Sarah Johnson.
“My husband was a lovely man, but he fell in love with someone else,” Jilly says tearfully. “And that’s what happened.”
Despite the heartbreak of Leo’s affair, Jilly and her husband eventually reconciled and remained married for an incredible 53 years.
'Jilly Cooper let us know we could enjoy earth-shattering orgasms,' says Sun Sexpert
By Georgette Culley, Sun Sexpert
GROWING up, most films, magazines, and porn seemed laser-focused on male pleasure, leaving women’s desires as an afterthought. Sex education at school wasn’t much better – condoms on bananas and stern warnings not to get pregnant. Sex was painted as something dirty, never as something beautiful or empowering.
But when I discovered Jilly Cooper’s books in my teens, it was a total game-changer. While she always wrote about strong, macho men, her female characters were just as powerful – especially in the bedroom. Jilly’s women weren’t shy or secondary, they owned their sexuality, making her novels a breath of fresh air in a world that often sidelined female pleasure.
She put women – and their pleasure – centre stage and made sure every girl knew that they too could enjoy earth-shattering orgasms – and lots of them.
She also taught me that sex – and relationships – aren’t always perfect. They can be messy, funny, chaotic, and downright awkward at times. But that’s where the magic happens. It’s in those imperfect moments that intimacy feels most real and beautiful. It was a lesson that helped me view sex with a lot more honesty and humour.
Okay, Jilly did set me up for a bit of a fall with her characters’ near-impossible standards – let’s face it, not every man is going to be dashing and blessed downstairs like her leading men. But she still made me appreciate the fun, complexity, and power of female pleasure.
In short, I’ve learned from Jilly that life is messy, love is complicated, and there’s always room for a bit of fun – even in the most unexpected places!
Their bond endured yet another devastating challenge in 2001, when Leo was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
Leo sadly passed away at their family home in the Cotswolds in 2013, surrounded by loved ones.
Though their marriage was far from perfect, the couple’s love story was one of resilience, loyalty, and deep emotional connection, lasting through thick and thin for over five decades.
‘Less bonking today’
After a lifetime writing about sex, Jilly believes that people, particularly the upper class, are having less sex today, stating, “There seems to be far less bonking.”
She’s also concerned that men have become less masculine and she feels that dating apps haven’t helped matters.
She also expressed that the #MeToo movement has made people more tense and anxious about sex.
Now in her eighties, she admits she’s “forgotten” how to write passionate sex scenes, finding it challenging to keep things fresh.
“I’m 86 now and have forgotten how to do it!”, she says. “It’s quite difficult to write sex scenes – you can’t go on finding ways to do it differently.”
Reflecting on her incredible life story, Jilly remains upbeat: “I hope I’m funny, and I hope I cheer people up. Life is short of joy, and I think sex is heaven – you should have as much as you can, and in books, I think you should have as much as you can too.”
In My Own Words: Jilly Cooper is on BBC1 at 10.40pm tonight
