Mount!

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Many of your readers will have noticed the huge number of literary allusions in your novels – from Yeats to Tennyson, Shakespeare to P. D. James. What books are currently on your bedside table? I'm glad I didn't pay full price for this book, otherwise I might've been seriously pissed-off. I have read every book in this series and, I'm sad to say I won't be in a rush to read any more, should Cooper choose to continue.

Mount! by Jilly Cooper | Waterstones

She wrote it all right. And under horrible circumstances she did brilliantly. But I suspect the editors never got a chance to make raw Jilly sound like real Jilly. I've been reading Jilly Cooper's novels for pretty much my whole adult life and some of the main characters are almost as familiar as family. Far any fans of Riders and Polo I would certainly recommend this novel as a great read. Although I am not very clued up when it comes to horse racing it is clear that Jilly has done her homework and her attention to detail is fantastic.Oh, gosh! I’m so old, I don’t know about Tinder and dating apps. Isn’t Tinder the one that has something called ‘likes’? I’m sure Rupert, Billy and Rannaldini would get lots of those. Today I read about speed-dating, that you have to decide whether you want to get off with someone in four minutes. In my day, we had the four-minute-mile and admired Roger Bannister hugely for achieving it. Today you have four-minute-males! I don’t think Rupert would need to bother with the Internet because women are always throwing themselves at him.

Rutshire Chronicles - Wikipedia Rutshire Chronicles - Wikipedia

Cooper’s break came at a crucial moment. Unable to have children, she and Leo were in the process of adopting a baby (Felix, followed later by Emily) when she met Godfrey Smith, then editor of the Sunday Times magazine, at a dinner, and regaled him with the details of life as a young wife. Any bits with Etta, Valent or Mrs Wilkinson could have been cut out quite happily. Ditto the whole bit with Seth Bainbridge and Trixie. I’ve always adored horses and, in writing Mount!, I’ve been privileged to meet some of the finest in the world. The great Frankel, for example, is turning out to be as wonderful a sire as he was racehorse, and lives with a lovely tabby cat friend called George. I have also shaken hooves with gentle Gallileo in Ireland, who has been leading sire for the past seven years. Equally excitingly, I went to the World Cup in Dubai, which takes place in the desert under an indigo sky, where the top horses race for multi-million prizes. After some amazing fireworks, all the stars come down to cheer on the equine stars. It is so romantic.Jilly is about bringing joy into your life: daft, silly, boozy joy, and if you like joy, you’ll like this. If Scotland ever does what it’s threatening, and casts off from Nigel Farage’s England (now there’s a man who looks like he uses Maestro cologne), I will miss her very much. Or Quaite Fraightfully, as we say in Jilly World. Oh, and when you get to that word – don’t say I didn’t warn you. I always said it’s like building a cathedral – sometimes a bit falls down, but it’s lovely, lovely,” she says today. Jolly Super once again.

Mount! - Penguin Books UK Mount! - Penguin Books UK

My hopes weren't high but for nostalgia (and having heard JC on Desert Island Discs & loved her) I got this for a long haul flight. The bad: Many of the characters seem like newly named versions of previous characters. It's like Jilly is running out of ideas for characters in her books, so just taking the old ones and giving them new names and voila! New character. They also seem completely undeveloped, so it's really hard to like them. And even the ones who are main characters and who are somewhat developed—aren't really very likeable. If I was rating this on quality of writing and storyline....it would have to have been a 1. It's truly dreadful, could have been half the size if Jilly hadn't spent so much time summarising events and relationships from previous RCB novels.While Jilly Cooper tried to write this novel, her husband's fight with Parkinson's disease began to be lost over three years until his death. Jilly herself had hip surgery from which to recover, and two of her beloved elderly pets also passed away, leaving her with a single dog. She writes gratefully of the reception that she received at various farms and races, as well as thanking her son who contributed with his research. I felt, however, that Jilly just didn't have the vim and vigour to pursue any social commentary to any degree in this story; I think that she was tired. Georgette Heyer is one of my favourite writers. She taught me so much history, and fantasizing about her macho Regency heroes made boarding school much more bearable. I loved setting the Prologue in Mount! in the eighteenth century, because here lies the key to the whole story. But I couldn’t keep it up for an entire book, I rely on modern slang too much. On the other hand, I adore anachronisms. I can’t remember which film it was when some warrior bellowed: ‘Men of the Middle Ages, let us go forth and fight the Hundred Years’ War!’

Jilly Cooper’s sensational classic from the Sunday Riders: Jilly Cooper’s sensational classic from the Sunday

Although many of her novels have "spiced up" scenes these do not overshadow a gripping yarn in this novel. It is unlike me to spend half a year reading one of her books but time has been limited for doing anything recently although I have read the final 25% in little more than a week. Your characters are all so well drawn, and not just the two-legged characters! Were there any special animals who inspired you in writing this novel? In this book, Rupert turns 60. Don't worry ladies, he is still naughty and still sexy. Rupert is now breeding Thoroughbred race horses and it gives you a good picture of racing behind the scenes. Rupert finally learns some important life lessons and things come out very well for him in the end (I do not want to spoil it for any of my fellow Jilly Cooper fans so I will let you read it for yourself).Horse racing is the other hero in Mount. What have been the highlights of learning about this glorious sport? Oh DEAR. I'm scanning my way through the endless chapters on the intricacies of a local horse race in the hope of finding a few words on humans, preferably one I know, or a crumb or two of humour or raunch. It also implied her marriage wasn't that brilliant and I wonder if she therefore just couldn't let Rupert and Taggie live happily ever after - or without him shagging the vile Gala.