Jilly Cooper has written 26 non-fiction books, 18 novels and four children’s books to date - which have sold over 11 million copies in the UK alone.
Originally working as a journalist, her column about marriage and relationships for the Sunday Times led to her first book being published - How to Stay Married - in 1969.
She’s most famous for her series or raunchy novels set in the fictional county of Rutshire, one of which, Rivals, has been made into a major eight-part series to be released on Disney+ later this year.
With so many books to choose from, it’s hard for a Jilly Cooper beginner to know where to start.
To help out, we’ve had a look at how the millions of readers of book website Goodreads have rated her books.
Here are the top 11.
She’s most famous for her series or raunchy novels set in the fictional county of Rutshire, one of which, Rivals, has been made into a major eight-part series to be released on Disney+ later this year.
![Jump! is the ninth in the Rutshire Chronicles, was published in 2010, and scored an average rating of 3.88 from 2,889 reviews. "Etta Bancroft - sweet, kind, still beautiful - adores racing and harbours a crush on one of its stars, the handsome high-handed owner-trainer Rupert Campbell-Black. When her bullying husband dies, Etta's selfish, ambitious children drag her from her lovely Dorset house to live in a hideous modern bungalowin the Cotswold village of Willowwood. Etta's life is transformed when she finds a horribly mutilated filly wandering in the woods. She names her Mrs Wilkinson and nurses her back to health. The filly charms everyone in the village, and when tests reveal her to be a spectacularly well-bred racehorse a village syndicate is formed to put the filly into training. Captivating vast crowds as she progresses from point-to-point to major races, she brings fame and fortune to the syndicate, until, at last, she is entered in the greatest jump race of them all. Can Mrs Wilkinson win the Grand National? And can Etta gain her heart's desire?"](https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/jpim-static/2024/06/25/11/12/Untitled-design-2024-06-25T120604-764.jpg?crop=3:2&trim=&width=800)
9. Jump!
Jump! is the ninth in the Rutshire Chronicles, was published in 2010, and scored an average rating of 3.88 from 2,889 reviews. "Etta Bancroft - sweet, kind, still beautiful - adores racing and harbours a crush on one of its stars, the handsome high-handed owner-trainer Rupert Campbell-Black. When her bullying husband dies, Etta's selfish, ambitious children drag her from her lovely Dorset house to live in a hideous modern bungalowin the Cotswold village of Willowwood. Etta's life is transformed when she finds a horribly mutilated filly wandering in the woods. She names her Mrs Wilkinson and nurses her back to health. The filly charms everyone in the village, and when tests reveal her to be a spectacularly well-bred racehorse a village syndicate is formed to put the filly into training. Captivating vast crowds as she progresses from point-to-point to major races, she brings fame and fortune to the syndicate, until, at last, she is entered in the greatest jump race of them all. Can Mrs Wilkinson win the Grand National? And can Etta gain her heart's desire?" | Contributed
![The first entry from a book not in the Rutshire Chronicles series completes the top 10. Prudence was publsihed in 1978 and scores an average rating of 3.87 from 1,104 reviews. "The trouble with the Mulholland family, Prudence decided, was that they were all in love with the wrong people. She'd been overjoyed when Pendle, her super-cool barrister boyfriend, invited her home for the weekend to meet his family. But home turned out to be a decaying mansion in the Lake District, and family were his glamorous, scatty mother who forgot the mounting bills by throwing wild parties, and brothers, Ace, dark and forbidding, and Jack, handsome, married and only too ready to take over with Pru if Pendle didn't get a move on. It was only when she noticed the way Pendle looked at Jack's wife Maggie that it began to dawn on Pru that there was more to this weekend than met the eye. It looked like a non-stop game of changing partners..."](https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/jpim-static/2024/06/25/11/27/Untitled-design-2024-06-25T121429-022.jpg?crop=3:2&trim=&width=800)
10. Prudence
The first entry from a book not in the Rutshire Chronicles series completes the top 10. Prudence was publsihed in 1978 and scores an average rating of 3.87 from 1,104 reviews. "The trouble with the Mulholland family, Prudence decided, was that they were all in love with the wrong people. She'd been overjoyed when Pendle, her super-cool barrister boyfriend, invited her home for the weekend to meet his family. But home turned out to be a decaying mansion in the Lake District, and family were his glamorous, scatty mother who forgot the mounting bills by throwing wild parties, and brothers, Ace, dark and forbidding, and Jack, handsome, married and only too ready to take over with Pru if Pendle didn't get a move on. It was only when she noticed the way Pendle looked at Jack's wife Maggie that it began to dawn on Pru that there was more to this weekend than met the eye. It looked like a non-stop game of changing partners..." | Contributed
![Completing our list is 2010 standalone novel Harriet, which scores an average rating of 3.84 from 1,566 reviews. "Shy, dreamy, and incurably romantic, Harriet Poole was shattered when her brief affair with Simon Villiers, the dashing Oxford undergraduate, ended abruptly, leaving her penniless, alone and pregnant. Still hopelessly in love with Simon, she took baby William and buried herself in deepest Yorkshire as nanny to the children of Cory Erskine, a somewhat eccentric scriptwriter. Local tongues were just beginning to wag when a whole host of visitors began to arrive to disrupt Harriet's peaceful routine: first Cory's estranged wife Noel, hellbent on winning Cory back, then Cory's glamorous brother Kit, whose old affair with Noel didn't stop him making passes at Harriet. Finally, of all people, Simon..."](https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/jpim-static/2024/06/25/11/33/Untitled-design-2024-06-25T121924-596.jpg?crop=3:2&trim=&width=800)
11. Harriet
Completing our list is 2010 standalone novel Harriet, which scores an average rating of 3.84 from 1,566 reviews. "Shy, dreamy, and incurably romantic, Harriet Poole was shattered when her brief affair with Simon Villiers, the dashing Oxford undergraduate, ended abruptly, leaving her penniless, alone and pregnant. Still hopelessly in love with Simon, she took baby William and buried herself in deepest Yorkshire as nanny to the children of Cory Erskine, a somewhat eccentric scriptwriter. Local tongues were just beginning to wag when a whole host of visitors began to arrive to disrupt Harriet's peaceful routine: first Cory's estranged wife Noel, hellbent on winning Cory back, then Cory's glamorous brother Kit, whose old affair with Noel didn't stop him making passes at Harriet. Finally, of all people, Simon..." | Contributed