Jilly ‘Queen of the Bonkbuster’ Cooper, the author behind Disney+ hit ‘Rivals’, has died aged 88

She had a successful career as a journalist before becoming best-known as a romance author

Jilly Cooper, author of the bestselling Rutshire series. Photo: PA

Jilly Cooper, who has died aged 88, made her mark first as a Sunday Times columnist and commentator on domestic chaos, then as the author of romantic novellas, and finally as “Queen of the Bonkbuster”, with a series of racy novels set in the aptly named Rutshire and dealing in bed-hopping horsey types with pert bottoms and loose morals.

Hunter Davies, her editor on the Sunday Times Look pages, recalled that many of the paper’s intellectuals looked down on Cooper: “They thought she was low-class and silly. They couldn’t believe it w

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