Dame Jilly Cooper's one-word to describe her legacy as Riders author dies

Dame Jilly Cooper previously opened up about her incredible legacy and hopes before her death aged 88. The much-loved author - who was known as the 'queen of the bonkbusters' after penning saucy novels including Riders and Rivals - has sadly died following a fall.

Her family, including Jilly's children Felix and Emilym issued a heartbreaking statement on Monday to confirm their mother died on Sunday morning following a fall. In a statement, her family said: "Mum, was the shining light in all of our lives. Her love for all of her family and friends knew no bounds.

"Her unexpected death has come as a complete shock. We are so proud of everything she achieved in her life and can’t begin to imagine life without her infectious smile and laughter all around us."

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Before her death, she discussed her honour and legacy, for which she was unerringly grateful.

She said: “I have lived an incredibly lucky life. Lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky. I had brilliant parents, a heavenly husband and lovely children.

The author also added: "I hope I am a bit funny. I hope I cheered people up. I hope I tell a good story.”

The icon's funeral will be held privately, as she requested, and a public service of thanksgiving will be held in the coming months at Southwark Cathedral to remember the author and her incredible life - that was just as colourful as her characters.

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Her agent, Felicity Blunt, said it was 'the privilege of my career has been working with a woman who has defined culture, writing and conversation since she was first published over fifty years ago.'

She added Jilly will undoubtedly be best remembered for her chart-topping series The Rutshire Chronicles and its havoc-making and handsome show-jumping hero Rupert Campbell-Black.

"You wouldn’t expect books categorised as bonkbusters to have so emphatically stood the test of time but Jilly wrote with acuity and insight about all things - class, sex, marriage, rivalry, grief and fertility," she said.

She added: "Her plots were both intricate and gutsy, spiked with sharp observations and wicked humour. She regularly mined her own life for inspiration and there was something Austenesque about her dissections of society, its many prejudices and norms. But if you tried to pay her this compliment, or any compliment, she would brush it aside.

"She wrote, she said, simply ‘to add to the sum of human happiness’. In this regard as a writer she was and remains unbeatable. In her last few years Jilly added to her curriculum vitae by serving as an executive producer on the Happy Prince adaptation of her novel Rivals for Disney+. Her suggestions for story and dialogue inevitably layered and enhanced scripts and her presence on set was a joy for cast and crew alike. Emotionally intelligent, fantastically generous, sharply observant and utter fun Jilly Cooper will be deeply missed by all at Curtis Brown and on the set of Rivals."

In a heartbreaking and personal message, Felicity added: "I have lost a friend, an ally, a confidante and a mentor. But I know she will live forever in the words she put on the page and on the screen."

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