Jilly Cooper’s books may be pure crap, but readers will never claim she’s a guilty pleasure. For a certain generation of women (but don’t forget Rishi Sunak is a fan), the 80s are bestsellers. Horseback Riding or Rivals were as much a part of growing up as Judy Blume.
These women are true to their early role models and are not ashamed to love Jilly (name). So they produced Proust in French or a Man Booker Prize shortlisted novel to achieve success. Interception! – set in the world of football, and it’s as crazy and fun to read as ever.
The book sees the return of Cooper’s character Rupert Campbell-Black – a crazy girl magnet, show jumper and horse racing tycoon. He finds himself in a difficult situation: his wife has to undergo chemotherapy, and his beloved leading stallion has been killed.
His daughter convinces him to buy the failing local soccer team so he can sign her star boyfriend. Rupert is not a football fan, but his competitive spirit drives him to try to take them straight to the top of the Premier League, while dealing with a corrupt rival team and, inevitably, a group of pranksters who are out to get him.
“The Beautiful Game” isn’t an obvious choice for Gilly. Compared to previous themes such as polo or classical music, it is not sophisticated enough. She can be trusted when it comes to men, haircuts, horses and dogs, clothes – but what she once affectionately called “football lingo” may not be so much. I loved this helpful match report: “7-4 to Searston, who scored the most goals and came out on top” and the goalkeeper racing onto the field to score.
When a player “moves in and out of an opponent like a Gymkhana pony in a corner race,” you sense his desire to return to his true interests. But it’s a fun and bold take on the topic.
This book is the eleventh of her Chronicles of Rathshire, set in her fictional county of Cotswold. These novels are caricatures, the plots are ridiculous, the people act absolutely incredible, they say like no one else in the world: “There’s my husband, doesn’t he look dapper in his new tailored Marine suit?” – but ignore it all. us for her vibrant style, her zest for life and her dazzling view of the world as she solves the absurd problems she poses to her characters.
Interception! shorter than some previous entries, with the first sex scene clocking in at nearly 100 pages. Gilly is 86 years old, and she talked about how difficult it is to write such scenes at her age. But these sections are, as always, sweet and raunchy, and credit goes to her invention of the concept of Glittoris, “a sweet-tasting silver liquid with which a girl painted her clitoris for her suitor to find.”
We know a generation of fans will automatically read this, but will Gilly be able to attract younger readers? The books used to be considered risque due to their sexual content, but now it’s other things that are causing a stir – you’ll notice there’s no #MeToo or “woke” nonsense here.
One journalist says: “I can’t deal with all this MeToo. “In my day they said “fuck off” when men were disgusting, and “fuck off” when they were voluptuous,” and her reward is that her male interlocutor places a gentle hand on “a thigh that is artificially tanned, more orange, than a car.” . .
Plus, everyone is judged by their thinness (a character named Harmony is “a very good, but rather tall deputy headman” in the stable) and appearance, and in real life any sane woman would run away from the rude Rupert – he is him. is an overbearing, thoughtless bully, and his own press secretary says he’ll “do a great job running a football club – he’s so good at swearing.”
Cooper has always harbored a bizarre hatred of feminists (or at least had a narrow view of them; in her books they can usually be identified by their unshaven legs), although to some, all her heroines are feminists. On the plus side, she always supported gay rights, was anti-racist, very non-puritanical and very sex positive.
Her books used to be handed out to teenagers who shared dirty places with each other – perhaps young people in today’s world don’t need that. But the appeal of then and now isn’t just about sex: it’s an entry into a glamorous world of high-end work, life and luxury trappings that readers don’t see every day, all conveyed with Gilly’s signature warmth, humor and kindness. .
All this turns out to be useful Interception! The book is smart and incredibly interesting to read. She can help a new generation learn to love them – it’s not just their mothers’ quirks.
Source: I News
I am Mario Pickle and I work in the news website industry as an author. I have been with 24 News Reporters for over 3 years, where I specialize in entertainment-related topics such as books, films, and other media. My background is in film studies and journalism, giving me the knowledge to write engaging pieces that appeal to a wide variety of readers.