Of Jilly Cooper, Highland Fling and the Stories That Stay with Us

When I heard that Jilly Cooper had died last Monday, aged 88, I felt the pang of part sadness, part nostalgia, part “oh no, not her”. Because for me, and for my mum and sisters, Jilly Cooper wasn’t just a name on the supermarket shelves; she was an era.

In the 1980s and 90s, her books were passed around our house. Riders, Rivals, The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous — paperbacks with sun-creased spines and slightly saucy covers that we read under duvets, giggling and blushing in equal measure.

Before the fame of the Rutshire set came the earlier, gentler novels — Imogen, Prudence, Harriet — books we loved for their romantic charm and razor-sharp observation.

Cooper could make even the most over-the-top country-house scandal feel real. Beneath the sex and the show-jumping, you could sense the enormous affection for her characters — especially her women.

She made female desire something unapologetic, funny, complicated and alive. Her heroines wanted things, chased them sometimes made a glorious mess of it all — and the world didn’t end. It was thrilling.

So yes, the obituaries talk about “bonkbusters” and bestsellers, but to me she was a writer who understood that pleasure and passion are part of being human — and that laughter, love and longing should all belong in the same sentence.

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A Little Bit of Good News

I would like to share a bit of bookish joy of my own…

Waterstones will be stocking the paperback of Highland Fling, which comes out next April — thanks to the brilliant team at Vinci Books. (The link is here if you would like to pre-order).

For a self-published author who still feels faintly astonished that anyone outside her immediate family reads her novels, this is a proper pinch-me moment. (Also: the temptation to film myself in front of my messy bookshelf and pretend it’s a Waterstones’ display is… overwhelming.)

Highland Fling sits in that tradition Jilly Cooper helped to shape — warm, funny, a bit messy, a lot romantic. It’s about heartbreak and reinvention, about running away to the Highlands and accidentally finding something that looks suspiciously like love.

So here’s to the storytellers who made us blush, laugh and believe — and to small triumphs that keep us writing, reading and dreaming.

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Thank you, Jilly.
And thank you, Waterstones, for letting this small Scottish romcom take its place on your shelves.