Western Daily Press (Saturday)
I’m not so good at sex scenes now I’m 86, admits Jilly
JILLY Cooper says that she has “forgotten” how to write raunchy scenes now that she is 86. The Cotswolds-based Rutshire Chronicles novellist found it hard to think of new ways to approach steamy moments in her upcoming release Tackle!, which is set to hit bookshops in November.
Jilly, who lives in Bisley, explained how she found the process of writing another book for her most popular series, including how she tackled writing sex scenes, to Good Housekeeping magazine. “I’m 86 now and have forgotten how to do it!” the author said.
Tackle! follows Rupert CampbellBlack, a Cotswold aristocrat, as he becomes the chairman of a football club, masterminding its rise to the top with “help from the club’s ravishing and adorable secretary Tember West”.
He also has to deal with a “sassy press officer” and “glamorous WAGs” lusting over him as he vies for success.
This is the first novel of Jilly’s that will be focused on football, with her previous titles being set in the world of show jumping and polo.
Jilly’s husband, military publisher Leo Cooper, died in 2013, aged 79, after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease more than a decade before.
Jilly and Leo tied the knot in 1961, and Jilly claims that “creaking bed springs” are the reason their marriage lasted for so long, not from sex but from laughter. “Leo was lovely and made me scream with laughter,” she remembered.
“I think couples should try a bit harder, but obviously there are bad patches. It’s much better for people not to be married if they are really unhappy.”
At the recent Cheltenham Literature Festival, Jilly said that her editors at Penguin had asked her to include more sex scenes, and to make them longer. She said: “They want me to have more sex in bits [of the novel]. Me?!
“I thought I was quite good at sex, but I think I’ve forgotten how to do it. My publishers want more intimacy in it, more women in it. But it’s mostly men.”
Although Jilly has received positive reviews for her upcoming novel, she has been very self-critical. “It’s not very good because I’m very old now,” she claimed.
“You can’t play tennis when you’re 86 and you can’t write in the same way when you’re 86.”
Last year, the former journalist said that she was shocked at some of the explicit content in her previous books after re-reading them, The Times reports.
This included her bestselling 1985 novel Riders: “Ah, sex scenes. I went back and read it – I haven’t read it for 20 years – and I must say I was horrified by the sex,” she said.
“I mean it’s great sex but gosh, I knew those things. There are lots of things wrong with it, there’s far too much sex really.”