Jilly Cooper

Novelist Jilly lives in the Cotswolds with her beloved greyhound Bluebell. Where are you going? I’m actually not going anywhere this year. My darling greyhound hates it when I go out – let alone leave for days. Besides, I live in a house on the edge of a stunning valley – and when you live in the Cotswolds, it’s so beautiful that you don’t really need to go anywhere. People tend to visit me and there are lots of parties. I would love to go away, but I have been writing my new novel for two years now and I really must get on and do it!

What will you be reading? The Scarlet Nightingale by my good friend Alan Titchmarsh. He is a sweet, sweet, darling man. He once came to give me some advice about my garden, and he told me, “Darling, your beds are too small.” To which I replied, “Clearly, you haven’t been upstairs!” He asked me for some advice on writing novels, and he has dedicated this one to me. It’s about wonderful women during the war and it’s just brilliant – full of poetry.

✢ Mount! by Jilly Cooper is out now (Corgi).

‘When you live in the beautiful Cotswolds, you don’t really need to go anywhere’