'She was tremendous fun' - best-selling novelist and racing fan Dame Jilly Cooper dies aged 88

Dame Jilly Cooper has been remembered as a figure of “tremendous fun” and a "national treasure" with a deep passion for racing and the people in the sport following her death at the age of 88.

One of Britain’s best-selling novelists, Cooper, who died on Sunday after a fall, was famed for her raunchy novels that centred on the sex lives and scandals of a wealthy countryside social circle in which horses and equine sports played a key role.

The author’s ninth novel, titled Jump!, was about a syndicate which comes together to race a one-eyed horse competing at the likes of the Cheltenham Festival and Grand National meeting.

As part of her research for the novel, Cooper joined a ladies-only syndicate named the Thoroughbred Ladies who had horses in training with Tom George, whose stables are located in the heart of the author’s literary landscape.

George said: “Jilly lived locally to us, a couple of miles down the road, and she was very much a local person in terms of how she drew on what was around her to do her writing. 

“When she wanted to get involved and learn more about racing for her book, that was when we got to know her better, and we saw a lot of her for that period, which was great fun.”

Among the horses owned by Cooper and trained by George was Island Flyer, a three-time winner over fences, while she was also involved with the syndicate which raced Monty’s Salvo, who was trained by Nicky Henderson.

Cooper also had a horse named after her, with the Johnstons (trainers Charlie and Mark) getting the author’s blessing to give her name to a filly in 2021.

Speaking to the Racing Post that year, Cooper said: "I love the Johnstons so much and they have become great friends. They wrote to me, saying they had a horse who was out of a mare called Jillnextdoor and asked if they could call her Jilly Cooper. I was so excited. I think the nicest thing anyone can do is to name a horse after you.”

During interviews, Cooper spoke of the camaraderie of syndicates, using this as background for Jump! George said the author’s inquisitiveness would sometimes lead to conversations taking an unusual turn.

“There was always a reason behind everything she was doing,” he said. “There was a time I drove her to the races and she spent more time asking about the suit I was wearing – about the material, the type of wool, where I got it from – as anything else. 

“She was always looking behind things to find out more and, when she did find out, it would appear somewhere unexpected in her writing, and you’d know that’s why she was asking about it. She was tremendous fun.”

Cooper also spent time with Robert Cowell near Newmarket as part of her book research, with the trainer and his family becoming lasting friends with the author.

Cowell said: "We first met her when she wanted to get inside a Flat racing yard for her book and we went on to do so much together. 

"She came to Dubai with us, stayed at ours and with my wife's family when we had runners at York, and she would invite us to Cheltenham. She always wanted to take some spice away – she didn’t just want a B&B, she wanted something real that she could use as the base for a story. She was so inquisitive.

"She was a great entertainer who had some remarkable stories, and she was extremely fun and very generous. She was a national treasure and she loved her racing passionately. It's very sad, especially with it coming so suddenly."