{"id":240811,"date":"2023-11-15T03:38:37","date_gmt":"2023-11-15T03:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/?p=240811"},"modified":"2023-11-15T03:38:37","modified_gmt":"2023-11-15T03:38:37","slug":"queen-of-the-bonkbuster-is-still-tackling-the-big-issues-of-the-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/lifestyle\/queen-of-the-bonkbuster-is-still-tackling-the-big-issues-of-the-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Queen of the Bonkbuster is still tackling the big issues of the day"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

But she didn\u2019t start writing the book \u2013 saucily titled Tackle! \u2013 until five years later.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was a cub reporter on the Middlesex Independent, aged 18, I used to cover the local football club. One of my first headlines was: \u2018Oh Brentford! How could you?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

That apart, she knew little or nothing about the Beautiful Game.<\/p>\n

So, she made it her business to befriend Forest Green Rovers, the club nearest to The Chantry, the 14th century house where she\u2019s lived for 40 years near Bisley in Gloucestershire.<\/p>\n

The club were promoted to League One in 2022 for the first time in their history, but were relegated after just one season. \u201cThey have the most beau-tiful grounds,\u201d says Jilly, \u201csurrounded by hills and lots of sheep. There\u2019s a superstition that if the sheep are not on the hills, the team loses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don’t miss… <\/strong> Jilly Cooper’s ‘Rivals’ shows the simplicity of the eighties’ TV – Judy Finnigan<\/strong><\/p>\n

The past six years have transformed her into quite the football fan. \u201cI\u2019ve been to lots of their matches and I always watch Soccer Saturday on Sky Sports. I love Manchester City and Pep Guardiola is a brilliant manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I do feel for Erik ten Hag who\u2019s having such a rotten time at United. It\u2019s a brutal way to earn your living. As one character says in the book, the first thing a new manager has to decide when he arrives at a club is who he\u2019s going to ask to his leaving party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tackle!, out now, was typed on Jilly\u2019s trusty typewriter, affectionately known as Monica, as have all her books from Riders onwards.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Monica is a bit like me these days,\u201d she says. \u201cShe\u2019s turned rather grey.\u201d<\/p>\n

She claims she writes about 15 drafts of every book. \u201cI\u2019m so slow. There\u2019s no way these days I could be a football reporter, writing up a match in half an hour. The result is that the house is disappearing under mountains of discarded paper.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Once again, the central character in the book will be dashing swordsman, Rupert Campbell-Black, the all-conquering race-horse owner and handsomest man in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe doesn\u2019t have the slightest interest in football,\u201d says Jilly. \u201cIn fact, he regards most footballers as little more than ballerinas skipping around the pitch indulging in group sex \u2013 all that hugging and kissing \u2013 when anyone scores a goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

She has a pretty good idea of a book\u2019s story arc. \u201cBut things do change on the dreaded journey. What I always insist on is a happy ending: good must triumph over evil.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rupert was pretty rotten in Riders. \u201cHe was but he\u2019s got nicer over the years. When the club are promoted, for instance, he buys the players a race horse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of this softening, of course, is as a result of his wife, Taggie, being so ill.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, she developed breast cancer in my last book, Mount!\u201d Did Jilly find that a challenge to write about? \u201cA lot of my friends have had cancer and they helped me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taggie and their daughter Bianca have fallen in love with football and persuade Rupert to buy local club, Searston Rovers. \u201cTaggie is so kind, so sweet and dog-mad. When a greyhound comes to stay, she puts flowers in his basket.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two years ago, Jilly lost her adored greyhound, Bluebell. Once she has finished all the promotion connected to Tackle! she says she is determined to get another rescue \u2013 a greyhound or a whippet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you first get one, you have to give it complete attention \u2013 so I\u2019d want to be here all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was 10 years ago, almost to the day, that Leo, Jilly\u2019s husband of 52 years, succumbed to Parkinson\u2019s.<\/p>\n

She misses him dreadfully: \u201cWell, he was so funny. I put all his jokes in my books. I still talk to him in my head. If anyone dies, I always think Leo will be up there to greet them with a large glass of red wine and Bluebell running round his legs.\u201d<\/p>\n