Dame Jilly Cooper has had a memorial befitting her legacy as one of the UK’s most celebrated authors, with many stars in attendance, including the Queen and the cast of Rivals.
Camilla and Rivals stars including Danny Dyer and David Tennant arrived for the memorial service for the beloved wtier at Southwark Cathedral on Friday (30 January), three months after her death. Cooper died on 5 October after a fall, aged 88.
Other guests included Dame Joanna Lumley, actor Rupert Everett, actor Sir Derek Jacobi and sports broadcaster Clare Balding.
Jacobi called Cooper a “glorious lady”, adding that he “loved her very much”. He said: “It means a great deal to be here, just to say a final ‘hello’.
Gardener and TV personality Alan Titchmarsh, who was friends with Cooper for 40 years, described the author as “hugely genuine” and said the memorial was a way of “saying thank you”.
Cooper’s literary agent Felicity Blunt was also in attendance at the memorial alongside her husband, actor Stanley Tucci, with the latter telling media: “She lived an incredible life. She also changed the lives of so many people for the better with her books, my wife being one of them.”
Tucci hailed her “an extraordinary person, a brilliant writer, nice person and naughty”.
Other celebrities in attendance included footballer Tony Adams, author Caitlin Moran and Good Morning Britain host Richard Madeley.
Cooper was best known for her risqué fiction focusing on the scandalous lives of the British elite in the Eighties and Nineties. She wrote Rivals in 1988, the second book in her Rutshire Chronicles series, which depicts the sordid ongoings in a power struggle between two television companies in the Cotswolds.
Other members of the adaptation’s cast, including Alex Hassell, Victoria Smurfit and Aidan Turner, were at the memorial.
Turner, who was sporting his Rivals character Declan O' Hara’s moustache, was present with his wife, Succession actor Caitlin FitzGerald.
Meanwhile, broadcaster Gyles Brandreth paid tribute to the “fabulous” and “amazing” Dame Jilly.
He said: “Whenever I think of Jilly Cooper, I think of one word, a three-letter word: fun, fun, fun, fun. That sums her up.
“This is, of course, terribly sad, but also it’s a celebration of an amazing life, an amazing writer, an amazing human being. Champagne is being popped in heaven today and I’m honoured and delighted to be here amongst so many celebrating an amazing writer.”
Cooper was initially alert after her fall, with family members finding her at her Bisley home at 5pm on 4 October. She was transferred to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, but her condition deteriorated. She died in hospital, with family present, at 8:30am on 5 October.
Her children, Felix and Emily, announced the news, stating: “Her unexpected death has come as a complete shock.”
“Mum was the shining light in all of our lives. Her love for all of her family and friends knew no bounds. 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.”
A number of Dame Jilly’s novels have been adapted for TV, including an ITV series of The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous with Coronation Street star Stephen Billington and Downton Abbey actor Hugh Bonneville, and a Riders series starring Marcus Gilbert during the 1990s.
The author was made a CBE for services to literature and charity during the 2018 New Year Honours, and in 2024 was made a dame, later describing receiving the honour from the King as “orgasmic”.
Additional reporting by Agencies
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