The genius of Jilly Cooper, queen of British bonkbusters

Jilly Cooper novels are smutty, sexist and snobbish. They have titles such as “Mount!” and “Score!” and “The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous” and are not easily mistaken for the collected works of Jane Austen. Their cast lists feature characters such as Rupert Campbell-Black (“nirvana for most women”), Bethany (a “nymphomaniac”) and Cadbury (a Labrador). Her novels contain far too many appearances of the word “wet” and a frankly distressing number of “thrusts”. They are reprehensible in almost every way. They are, in other words, great fun. And they also say something about how Britain has changed during Ms Cooper’s long career.