Main content

Jilly Cooper

From Bob Marley to Schubert. Writer Jilly Cooper makes her castaway choices. With Kirsty Young. From 2016.

Kirsty Young’s castaway is the writer Jilly Cooper.

Her long writing career spans newspaper columns for the Sunday Times and the Mail on Sunday, non-fiction books on class, marriage and animals in war and novels that sell in their millions. Her romances set in the late seventies - including 'Bella', 'Harriett', 'Imogen' and 'Prudence' – were followed by 'Riders' in 1985, the first of her Rutshire Chronicles. Set mainly in the Cotswolds, they are racy and raunchy page-turners exposing the scandalous – and often hilarious - goings on among the British upper classes.

Born in 1937 in Essex, she was brought up in Yorkshire and enjoyed a happy childhood surrounded by dogs and ponies. At boarding school she earned the nickname, β€˜the unholy terror’ and having failed to get into Oxford and being sacked from a number of jobs for her inability to type, she turned to journalism before publishing her first book, 'How to Stay Married' in 1969.

She married Leo Cooper in 1961 and, unable to have children of their own, the couple adopted Felix and Emily in the late 1960s. The couple were married for 52 years before his death in 2013.

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 in 2016.

Available now

37 minutes

Last on

Thu 11 Feb 2021 21:00
ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 Extra

More episodes

Previous

Professor Dame Ann Dowling

Next

Michael Heath

See all episodes from Desert Island Discs

  • You'll find one of her books on every bookshelf wherever you go. Why is she so appealing?

Clips

See all clips from Jilly Cooper (3)

Music Played

  • Franz Schubert

    Das Wandern

    Performer: Dietrich Fischer‐Dieskau. Performer: Gerald Moore.
    • Die SchΓΆne MΓΌllerin.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.

  • Julie Andrews & Christopher Plummer

    Something Good

    • The Sounds of Music- Original Soundtrack Recording.
    • RCA.

  • Johannes Brahms

    Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15

    Performer: John Lill. Orchestra: HallΓ©. Conductor: James Loughran.
    • Brahms Concerto No. 1.
    • Academy Sound and Vision.

  • Elvis Presley

    CanΒ’t Help Falling in Love

    • Blue Hawaii.
    • RCA.

  • Richard Strauss

    Des Helden Weltflucht und Vollendung

    Orchestra: Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Daniel Barenboim.
    • Ampassionata Β– The Music from the Book.
    • Warner Classics.

  • Bob Marley

    Buffalo Solider

    • Legend.
    • Tuff Gong.

  • CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE

    • Felix Mendelssohn

      He, Watching Over Israel, Slumbers Not

      Choir: London Symphony Chorus. Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Performer: Roderick Elms.
      • Mendelssohn: Elijah.
      • Chandos.

  • Band of HM Coldstream Guards

    HereΒ’s to the Heroes

    • Heroes.
    • Decca.

  • BOOK CHOICE

    The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

  • LUXURY ITEM

    A sack of nuts

Credits

Presenter Kirsty Young
Interviewed Guest Jilly Cooper
Producer Cathy Drysdale

Broadcasts

  • Sun 31 Jul 2016 11:15
    ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
  • Fri 5 Aug 2016 09:00
    ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
  • Sun 7 Feb 2021 10:00
    ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 Extra
  • Sun 7 Feb 2021 21:00
    ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 Extra
  • Thu 11 Feb 2021 11:00
    ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 Extra
  • Thu 11 Feb 2021 21:00
    ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 Extra

Featured in...

The Desert Island Discs podcast

The Desert Island Discs podcast

Subscribe or download individual episodes.

Listen to over 2,000 programmes

Click above to browse castaways, from 1942 to today.

Articles

Read the surprising things we've learned about some stand-out castaways.

Podcast