Jilly Cooper

Areas of Interest

Media, International

Biography

Jilly Cooper is a world-class journalist and writer whose books have sold over 11 million copies in the UK alone and have been translated into many languages. Born in Hornchurch, although she and her husband Leo have lived in the Cotswolds since 1982, she has retained a great fondness for her Essex roots and the countryside around Chelmsford.

Jilly's writing career began in 1956 when she got a job as a junior reporter at the Middlesex Independent, based in Brentford. She then moved to public relations and ended up in book publishing. Speaking about her writing, Jilly attributes her talent to her family - in her own words ''there has always been ink in the family blood'' as her great, great grandfather founded the Leeds Mercury, a forerunner to the Yorkshire post.

Her break came with a chance meeting at a dinner party. The editor of The Sunday Times Magazine was impressed by the honest and frank way that she talked about her life as a young housewife and asked her to write a feature about her experiences. This led to a column in which Jilly wrote about marriage, sex and housework with an openness uncommon for the time. She established a large following amongst Sunday Times readers with entertaining pieces, together with a series of more serious interviews with high profile personalities including Margaret Thatcher and George Best. In 1982 Jilly left the Sunday Times and joined the Mail on Sunday, for whom she wrote a bi-monthly column until 1987.

She has based much of her writing on her own direct observations on life. Her first book was written in 1969, and since then she has written or helped to compile 40 other books. Jilly has also appeared on radio and television, and In 1970 she wrote a TV series about four girls in a flat entitled It's Awfully Bad for Your Eyes Darling, in which Joanna Lumley played a starring role.

Her first big novel, Riders, was published in 1985, becoming a bestseller which was later adapted for a major two-part mini series for television which achieved an astounding 9 million viewers for the first episode and 15 million for the second. Rivals, published in 1988, was also a bestseller and Polo, which was published in 1991, was the highest selling hardback novel of the year. The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous, published in April of 1993, went straight into the number one position too and remained there for eight weeks. This was also adapted for television in 1997, attracting similarly high audiences to Riders. The stories feature adultery, infidelity and betrayal and each has sold well over 1 million copies in their UK editions and have topped bestselling beach and essential contemporary reading charts. Her latest novel, about National Hunt racing, is titled Jump!.

In 1998, Jilly received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the British Book Awards. In 2004 she was awarded the OBE for Services to Literature and in the same year received the Variety Club Heart of Yorkshire Award for Services to the Media.

Jilly Cooper is one of the most prolific and popular writers of our time. She is a self-made writer who has worked incredibly hard to stay at the top of her game. We salute her many achievements here today knowing that there are many students of Creative Writing, Publishing and Journalism at Anglia Ruskin University who would love to emulate her incredible success.

Citation

"Vice Chancellor, it is my pleasure to read the citation for Jilly Cooper for the award of Honorary Doctor of Letters.

Jilly Cooper is a world-class journalist and writer whose books have sold over 11 million copies in the UK alone and have been translated into many languages. Although she and her husband Leo have lived in the Cotswolds since 1982, she has retained a great fondness for her Essex roots and the countryside around Chelmsford. Jilly is someone whose life-long link to Essex is almost as strong as her love of the countryside, dogs and horses.

Born in Hornchurch, her father worked at the nearby Ford Motor Company until the outbreak of World War II when he was called to overseas service. Jilly's mother took her and her brother back home to family in Yorkshire before later returning to the south. Part of Jilly's schooling was at Godophin School in Salisbury, where she became known to the staff as the 'Unholy Terror'!

Jilly's writing career began in 1956 when she got a job as a junior reporter at the Middlesex Independent, based in Brentford. She then moved to public relations and ended up in book publishing. Speaking about her writing, Jilly attributes her talent to her family - in her own words ''there has always been ink in the family blood'' as her great, great grandfather founded the Leeds Mercury, a forerunner to the Yorkshire post.

Her break came with a chance meeting at a dinner party. The editor of The Sunday Times Magazine was impressed by the honest and frank way that she talked about her life as a young housewife and asked her to write a feature about her experiences. This led to a column in which Jilly wrote about marriage, sex and housework with an openness uncommon for the time. She established a large following amongst Sunday Times readers with entertaining pieces, together with a series of more serious interviews with high profile personalities including Margaret Thatcher and George Best. In 1982 Jilly left the Sunday Times and joined the Mail on Sunday, for whom she wrote a bi-monthly column until 1987.

She has based much of her writing on her own direct observations on life, with her first book, How To Stay Married, written in 1969, and since then she has written or helped to compile 40 other books. Jilly has also appeared on radio and television, including What's My Line, which regularly achieved 14 million viewers. In 1970 she wrote a TV series about four girls in a flat entitled It's Awfully Bad for Your Eyes Darling, in which Joanna Lumley played a starring role.

Jilly's most famous non-fiction work is Class, but she has also completed a book for Heinemann and the Imperial War Museum calledAnimals In War. This much loved classic depiction of animals in wartime was reissued in March 2000 to coincide with the launch of the Animals In War Memorial Campaign, of which Jilly Cooper is one of the patrons. A memorial to animals in war was unveiled in Park Lane by the Princess Royal in November 2004. Other non-fiction works include a book about her London life called the Common Years, a collection of newspaper pieces - mostly about her life in Gloucestershire - calledTurn Right at the Spotted Dog, and two more best-sellers, How to Survive Christmas and How to Survive from 9 to 5. She is also the author of four children's books.

In 1975 Jilly Cooper began to write a series of romances based on long magazine stories she had published earlier, and these became Emily, Bella, Imogen, Prudence, Harriet and Octavia, and a collection of short stories called Lisa and Co - her first fiction in book form. Then in 1993 she published Araminta's Wedding, a witty novella of English country life.

Her first big novel, Riders, was published in 1985, becoming a bestseller which was later adapted for a major two-part mini series for television. This adaptation achieved an astounding 9 million viewers for the first episode and 15 million for the second. Rivals, published in 1988, was also a bestseller and Polo, which was published in 1991, was the highest selling hardback novel of the year. The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous, published in April of 1993, went straight into the number one position too and remained there for eight weeks. This was also adapted for television in 1997, attracting similarly high audiences to Riders. The stories feature adultery, infidelity and betrayal and each has sold well over 1 million copies in their UK editions and have topped bestselling beach and essential contemporary reading charts.

Other bestselling novels have included Appasionata and Score! which both went straight into the number one position on The Sunday Times list, Pandora, published in 2002, and Wicked!, the story of an independent boarding school forming a partnership with a comprehensive school, published in May 2006. Her latest novel, about National Hunt racing, is titled Jump!.

In 1998, Jilly received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the British Book Awards; in June 2004, she was awarded the OBE for Services to Literature; and in July the same year she received the Variety Club Heart of Yorkshire Award for Services to the Media.

Jilly Cooper is one of the most prolific and popular writers of our time. She is a self-made writer who has worked incredibly hard to stay at the top of her game. We salute her many achievements here today knowing that there are many students of Creative Writing, Publishing and Journalism at Anglia Ruskin University who would love to emulate her incredible success.

Vice Chancellor, it is my pleasure to present Jilly Cooper for the award of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa."