Jilly’s worst critics? Her family

SHE’S one of our best loved novelists but it’s a wonder Jilly Cooper didn’t give up writing, if the encouragement of her family is anything to go by.

Jilly, 79, says: ‘My late husband Leo had a good antennae for detecting rubbish.

‘He was ill once and he read a book of mine, Prudence, which he said made him feel worse. And then never read any more of my fiction.

‘My lovely brother, Tim, couldn’t believe it when I got an OBE for services to literature. “You, Jilly?” he said. “Literature?” And roared with laughter.’