A tale of two schools…

At Bagley Hall, a notoriously wild, but increasingly academic, independent, crammed with the children of the famous, trouble is afoot. The ambitious and fatally attractive headmaster, Hengist Brett-Taylor, hatches a plan to share the facilities of his school with Larkminster Comprehensive – known locally, as ‘Larks’.

His reasons for doing so are purely financial, but he is encouraged by the opportunities the scheme gives him for frequent meetings with Janna Curtis, the dynamic new head of Larks, who has been drafted in to save what is a fast-sinking school from closure. Janna is young, pretty, enthusiastic and vastly brave – and she will do anything to rescue her demoralised, run-down and cash-strapped school.

Neither parents nor staff of either school are too keen on this radical move, although some can see the possible financial advantages. For the students, however, it offers great opportunities to get up to even more mayhem than usual.

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‘Simply enjoy the wicked pleasures Cooper does so well’ The Observer
‘A brilliantly refreshing read’ Polly Vernon
‘The perfect beach companion’ Daily Mail
‘I devoured it with as much joy as I would a bucket of pistachio ice cream’ Daily Mail

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The most fun you can have under a Tenor…

Abigail Rosen, nicknamed Appassionata, was the sexiest, most flamboyant violinist in classical music, but she was also the loneliest and the most exploited girl in the world. When a dramatic suicide attempt destroyed her violin career, she set her sights on the male-dominated heights of the conductor’s rostrum.

Given the chance to take over the Rutminster Symphony Orchestra, Abby is ecstatic, not realising the RSO is in hock up to its neck and is composed of the wildest bunch of musicians ever to blow a horn or caress a fiddle. Abby finds it increasingly difficult to control her undisciplined rabble and pretend she is not madly attracted to the fatally glamorous horn player, Viking O’Neill, who claims droit de seigneur over every pretty woman joining the orchestra. And then Rannaldini, arch-fiend and international maestro, rolls up with Machiavellian plans of his own to sabotage the RSO.

Effervescent as champagne, Jilly Cooper’s novel brings back old favourites like Rupert and Taggie Campbell-Black, but also ends triumphantly with a rampageous orchestral tour of Spain and the high drama of an international piano competition.

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Praise for Appassionata:

‘Delicious … I could not put the damned thing down’ Sunday Express
‘A boisterous tale of sex and Chopin’ Tatler
‘Sexy, dazzling protagonists… the humour comes thick and fast’ Daily Express

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Lysander Hawkley is a good man – but far, far too attractive to women.

Lysander Hawkley combined breathtaking good looks with the kindest of hearts. He couldn’t pass a stray dog, an ill-treated horse or a neglected wife without rushing to the rescue. And with neglected wives the rescue invariably led to ecstatic bonking, which didn’t please their erring husbands one bit.

Lysander’s mid-life crisis had begun at twenty-two. Reeling from the death of his beautiful mother, he was out of work, drinking too much and desperately in debt. The solution came from Ferdie, his fat, fast-operating friend: if Lysander was so good at making husbands jealous, why shouldn’t he get paid for it?

Let loose among the neglected wives of the ritzy county of Rutshire, Lysander causes absolute havoc. But it is only when he meets Rannaldini, Rutshire’s King Rat and a temperamental, fiendishly promiscuous international conductor, that the trouble really starts. The only unglamorous woman around Rannaldini is Kitty, his plump young wife who runs his life like clockwork. Soon Lysander is convinced that Kitty must be rescued from Rannaldini at all costs, even if it means enlisting the help of the old blue-eyed havoc maker: Rupert Campbell-Black.

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‘Wicked, sexy, sparkling with wit’ Sunday Express
‘Irresistible… I devoured it in a day… she’s on cracking form’ Sunday Telegraph
‘Delicious … her bawdy humour shines through at all times … settle down and have a rollicking good time. Satisfaction guaranteed!’ Jackie Collins

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Jilly Cooper returns to horses in a fabulously entertaining romp through the world of jump racing.

Etta Bancroft – sweet, kind, still beautiful – adores racing and harbours a crush on one of its stars, the handsome high-handed owner-trainer Rupert Campbell-Black. When her bullying husband dies, Etta’s selfish, ambitious children drag her from her lovely Dorset house to live in a hideous modern bungalowin the Cotswold village of Willowwood.

Etta’s life is transformed when she finds a horribly mutilated filly wandering in the woods. She names her Mrs Wilkinson and nurses her back to health. The filly charms everyone in the village, and when tests reveal her to be a spectacularly well-bred racehorse a village syndicate is formed to put the filly into training.

Captivating vast crowds as she progresses from point-to-point to major races, she brings fame and fortune to the syndicate, until, at last, she is entered in the greatest jump race of them all. Can Mrs Wilkinson win the Grand National? And can Etta gain her heart’s desire?

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‘Hugely entertaining, touching and funny, yet again Cooper has a winner’ Daily Express
‘The narrative zips along, pierced with her characteristically brilliant ear for dialogue and empathy for human relationships of all kinds…You won’t be able to put it down once you get going’ Daily Mail
‘A classic romp through the world of horse racing. Guilty pleasures rarely come as delicious as this’ ELLE

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