London (AFP) — British author Jilly Cooper, known for her unapologetically raunchy romance novels, has died at the age of 88 following a fall, her agent and family said on Monday.

A former journalist, Cooper penned the best-selling series of romantic novels known as The Rutshire Chronicles, which included “Rivals” recently adapted for television by Disney+.

Cooper’s publishing house Curtis Brown said in a statement that the writer, who was a friend of the UK’s Queen Camilla, had died “on Sunday morning, after a fall”.

British Conservative former prime minister Rishi Sunak professed himself “a genuine fan” in 2023, adding: “You have to have escapism in your life.”

“Jilly may have worn her influence lightly but she was a true trailblazer,” her publisher Bill Scott-Kerr said in a statemen

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