“The hand?” asks Jilly Cooper, glancing at the cover of her romping 1980s classic *Riders* – at the pert behind vacuum-packed into white jodhpurs and the swarthy male hand “copping a feel” of the woman’s right cheek. “No, I never did meet ‘the hand’, but I can tell you that it’s done quite a bit of wandering over the years.”
It’s hard to believe that the first of her bestselling romance series, the Rutshire Chronicles, will turn 40 next year. Although I do remember stealing my best friend’s mother’s copy as a teen and sniggering over the naughty bits at the bottom of the garden.
Since then, the *Riders* cover has become a pop culture leitmotif, alongside other Cooper classics (you’ll remember a similarly swarthy hand reaching for a woman’s thigh beneath the table on the cover of *Rivals*); the journalist and author a national treasure, who has [sold over 11 million books](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/jilly-cooper-novels-riders-disney-guide-primer-fiction/) in the UK alone.
Today, with the [Disney+ adaptation of *Rivals*](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/01/jilly-cooper-rivals-aidan-turner-disney-fifteen-love-prime/) coming up (starring Aidan Turner, David Tennant and Danny Dyer), 87-year-old Cooper to be given a damehood for her services to literature and charity next month, and this week’s *Spectator* splashing on how a “Jilly Cooper Book Club” (set up by a group of fans who apparently had a spectacular falling out) “turned toxic”, we seem to be in the midst of a whole new Jilly-surgence. (Although all she’ll say on this is: “I was only ever deeply flattered that anyone would set up a book club in my name.”)
Certainly, no interviewee aside from Sir David Attenborough has prompted such exclamations of envy from friends. “Jilly Cooper! Can I come?” But wait: what does she mean, “wandering”?
“‘The hand’ has moved several times over the years,” says Cooper, whom I have met on a few occasions over the decades and find a little frailer today, yet still sparkling-eyed and fluffy-haired, dressed in black leggings and a light blue jumper. “When it was first published it was sort of mid-bum. Then, I had a rather respectful publisher about 10 years ago, when we published the 30th anniversary edition, and they moved the hand off the bum. And now…” We both peer more closely at the bottom, as though willing that hand to wander in real time, “the hand’s actually straight down the crack, see?” More of a cupping than a petting, I agree. Taking a sip of tea, Cooper murmurs: “A cupping, yes.”
I’ve travelled to her 14th-century home near Bisley, Gloucestershire, not just to discuss the wandering hands of men and time, and certainly not to discuss the Disney+ version of *Rivals*, on which she is an executive producer, “because although I have seen the first episode and it is absolutely thrilling, I’m not allowed to talk about it”. No, I’m nominally here to discuss her 50th and [latest book, *Tackle!*](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/review-jilly-cooper-tackle/) – and never has it been more difficult to get an author to focus on promoting her novel.
Like the house she has lived in for 40 years, which is gloriously un-showhome-like, with busy William Morris wallpaper, peeling paint, and every inch of every surface covered in oil paintings, cartoons, novelty coasters, throw cushions, books and ornaments, Cooper’s conversation is a series of joyful distractions. But at least the tech distractions are kept to a minimum. There’s no internet here and scarcely any mobile phone coverage. The author admits she “wouldn’t even know how to open a laptop”, preferring to do her 11am-5pm writing stints on a trusty old typewriter named Monica, “whose ribbon is so worn out, I can now hardly make out the print on the page”.
For half an hour, we ricochet from my marriage to hers: how much she still misses her late husband of 53 years, Leo, who died in 2013, aged 79, after a decade-long battle with Parkinson’s. “We had so much laughter and fun”.
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**From The Telegraph’s Celia Walden:**
“The hand?” asks Jilly Cooper, glancing at the cover of her romping 1980s classic *Riders* – at the pert behind vacuum-packed into white jodhpurs and the swarthy male hand “copping a feel” of the woman’s right cheek. “No, I never did meet ‘the hand’, but I can tell you that it’s done quite a bit of wandering over the years.”
It’s hard to believe that the first of her bestselling romance series, the Rutshire Chronicles, will turn 40 next year. Although I do remember stealing my best friend’s mother’s copy as a teen and sniggering over the naughty bits at the bottom of the garden.
Since then, the *Riders* cover has become a pop culture leitmotif, alongside other Cooper classics (you’ll remember a similarly swarthy hand reaching for a woman’s thigh beneath the table on the cover of *Rivals*); the journalist and author a national treasure, who has [sold over 11 million books](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/jilly-cooper-novels-riders-disney-guide-primer-fiction/) in the UK alone.
Today, with the [Disney+ adaptation of *Rivals*](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/01/jilly-cooper-rivals-aidan-turner-disney-fifteen-love-prime/) coming up (starring Aidan Turner, David Tennant and Danny Dyer), 87-year-old Cooper to be given a damehood for her services to literature and charity next month, and this week’s *Spectator* splashing on how a “Jilly Cooper Book Club” (set up by a group of fans who apparently had a spectacular falling out) “turned toxic”, we seem to be in the midst of a whole new Jilly-surgence. (Although all she’ll say on this is: “I was only ever deeply flattered that anyone would set up a book club in my name.”)
Certainly, no interviewee aside from Sir David Attenborough has prompted such exclamations of envy from friends. “Jilly Cooper! Can I come?” But wait: what does she mean, “wandering”?
“‘The hand’ has moved several times over the years,” says Cooper, whom I have met on a few occasions over the decades and find a little frailer today, yet still sparkling-eyed and fluffy-haired, dressed in black leggings and a light blue jumper. “When it was first published it was sort of mid-bum. Then, I had a rather respectful publisher about 10 years ago, when we published the 30th anniversary edition, and they moved the hand off the bum. And now…” We both peer more closely at the bottom, as though willing that hand to wander in real time, “the hand’s actually straight down the crack, see?” More of a cupping than a petting, I agree. Taking a sip of tea, Cooper murmurs: “A cupping, yes.”
I’ve travelled to her 14th-century home near Bisley, Gloucestershire, not just to discuss the wandering hands of men and time, and certainly not to discuss the Disney+ version of *Rivals*, on which she is an executive producer, “because although I have seen the first episode and it is absolutely thrilling, I’m not allowed to talk about it”. No, I’m nominally here to discuss her 50th and [latest book, *Tackle!*](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/review-jilly-cooper-tackle/) – and never has it been more difficult to get an author to focus on promoting her novel.
Like the house she has lived in for 40 years, which is gloriously un-showhome-like, with busy William Morris wallpaper, peeling paint, and every inch of every surface covered in oil paintings, cartoons, novelty coasters, throw cushions, books and ornaments, Cooper’s conversation is a series of joyful distractions. But at least the tech distractions are kept to a minimum. There’s no internet here and scarcely any mobile phone coverage. The author admits she “wouldn’t even know how to open a laptop”, preferring to do her 11am-5pm writing stints on a trusty old typewriter named Monica, “whose ribbon is so worn out, I can now hardly make out the print on the page”.
For half an hour, we ricochet from my marriage to hers: how much she still misses her late husband of 53 years, Leo, who died in 2013, aged 79, after a decade-long battle with Parkinson’s. “We had so much laughter and fun”.
**Continue reading the full interview ⬇️**
[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/jilly-cooper-interview-me-too-taxi-rape/](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/jilly-cooper-interview-me-too-taxi-rape/)