The literary world is mourning the loss of one of its most vibrant voices, Dame Jilly Cooper, who died last month at the age of 88 following a tragic accident at her home.
A Shocking and Sudden Loss
The acclaimed author, best known for her best-selling novel Rivals and the iconic Rutshire Chronicles series, passed away on October 5, 2025. Her death was the result of a traumatic subdural haematoma, a type of brain bleed, which she sustained after a fall at her home in Gloucestershire the previous day.
An inquest at Gloucestershire Coroners’ Court detailed that Cooper was found by her family on October 4. Initially alert after the incident, she was transferred by paramedics to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital. However, her condition deteriorated rapidly, and she died a day later, surrounded by her loved ones.
Senior coroner for Gloucestershire, Katy Skerrett, officially recorded a conclusion of accidental death.
A Life and Career That Spanned Decades
Born in Hornchurch, Essex, in 1937, Jilly Cooper’s remarkable career spanned more than half a century. She first entered the world of journalism in 1956, writing candid columns on love and social life.
Her first non-fiction book, How to Stay Married, was published in 1969. She soon transitioned to fiction, where she found monumental success chronicling the lives and foibles of the English upper-middle classes.
Her fiction debut, Emily, in 1975 marked the start of a fifty-year partnership with her publisher, Transworld. During this time, she published eighteen novels and more than twenty non-fiction works.
Her agent, Felicity Blunt, paid a moving tribute, stating Cooper was ‘a woman who has defined culture, writing and conversation since she was first published over fifty years ago.’ She highlighted that while Cooper’s books were often categorised as ‘bonkbusters’, they ‘emphatically stood the test of time’ due to their sharp insight into class, sex, and rivalry.
A Lasting Legacy and a Final Project
Jilly Cooper’s contributions to literature were formally recognised with an OBE in 2004, which was upgraded to a Damehood in 2024.
In recent years, she served as an executive producer on the Disney Plus adaptation of her novel Rivals. In an interview with The Guardian, she expressed hope that the show would introduce her work to a new, younger generation.
Cooper was married to Leo Cooper, a publisher of military history books, from 1961 until his death in 2013. The couple adopted two children, Felix and Emily, who released a statement saying they were left in ‘complete shock’ by their mother’s unexpected passing.
They described her as the ‘shining light in all of our lives’ whose love knew no bounds, and expressed being ‘so proud of everything she achieved.’
