Eamonn Holmes has claimed he was the inspiration for a character in one of Dame Jilly Cooper’s famously racy novels, as he paid tribute to the author following her death at the age of 88.
The ‘Queen of the bonkbuster’ died suddenly after a fall at her home in the Cotswoldson Sunday, her family confirmed, saying they were “shocked” by her passing.
Speaking on GB News Breakfast, Holmes recalled meeting the beloved writer years earlier and being told that one of her charming, mischievous heroes was loosely based on him.
“She actually got me along to a theatre where she was studying something one day, and she said, ‘I’ve based my new hero on you,’” Holmes told co-host Ellie Costello.
“Now this hero is either called Eamonn, or he was a TV presenter, so I feature in it in some way.”
Joking about what his fictional alter ego might have been up to, he laughed: “Maybe I say ‘get up to dirty things.’”
Costello replied: “I think there is a bit of that! I think you should get reading and find out what you’ve been up to in her books, you don’t know! She could have written anything!”
Holmes quipped back: “Is there somebody called Eamonn in one of her books? Or a TV anchor? He’d be devilishly handsome. Impossibly handsome.”
Best known for The Rutshire Chronicles, her hit series centred on the charming yet scandalous showjumper Rupert Campbell-Black, Dame Jilly enthralled millions with her sharp, funny, and delightfully risqué portrayals of Britain’s polo playing elite.
Dame Jilly’s first novel in the Rutshire series, Riders, was published in 1985.
It made the BBC list of 100 important English language novels in the love, sex and romance selection alongside Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice.
Rivals was adapted for television by Disney+ last year and is currently filming its second season.
In August, the author hosted a party for the Rivals cast at her Gloucestershire home, joined by long-time friend Andrew Parker Bowles, the former husband of Queen Camilla, who is widely believed to have inspired the infamous Campbell-Black himself.
Dame Jilly lost her husband, publisher Leo Cooper, to Parkinson’s disease in 2013.
Having known him since childhood, she refused to place him in a care home even as his illness advanced, later admitting she continued writing novels in her later years to help cover his medical expenses.
In the wake of her passing, Dame Jilly’s children Felix and Emily said: “Mum, was the shining light in all of our lives. Her love for all of her family and friends knew no bounds.
“Her unexpected death has come as a complete shock. We are so proud of everything she achieved in her life and can’t begin to imagine life without her infectious smile and laughter all around us.”
Born in Hornchurch, Essex in 1937, Dame Jilly grew up in Yorkshire and attended the private Godolphin School in Salisbury.
Her father was a brigadier and her family moved to London in the 1950s where she became a reporter on The Middlesex Independent when she was 20.
She has said she moved to public relations and was sacked from 22 jobs before ending up in book publishing.
Her work has been adapted at various points, including an ITV series of The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous with Coronation Street star Stephen Billington and Downton Abbey actor Hugh Bonneville, while Marcus Gilbert starred in a Riders series during the 1990s.
She won the inaugural Comedy Women in Print lifetime achievement award in 2019 and was made a Dame for her services to literature and charity in 2024.
A new edition of How To Survive Christmas by Dame Jilly is due to be published through Transworld in November.
The book, first published in 1986, is described as “an irreverent and witty guide to surviving the festive season”.
Dame Jilly’s funeral will be private in line with her wishes, according to her agent.
A public service of thanksgiving will be held in the coming months in Southwark Cathedral to celebrate her life, with a separate announcement made in due course.
