{"id":62558,"date":"2025-10-06T16:44:52","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T16:44:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bestselling-author-jilly-cooper-dies-at-88"},"modified":"2025-10-06T17:22:39","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T17:22:39","slug":"bestselling-author-jilly-cooper-dies-at-88","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bestselling-author-jilly-cooper-dies-at-88","title":{"rendered":"Bestselling author Jilly Cooper dies at 88"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>Renowned author Dame Jilly Cooper, celebrated for her best-selling novels such as Rivals and Riders, passed away on Monday at the age of 88. In a statement, her children, Felix and Emily, described her as \u201cthe shining light\u201d of their lives and said her sudden passing had left them completely shocked.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are so proud of everything she achieved in her life and can&#8217;t begin to imagine life without her infectious smile and laughter all around us,&#8221; they added.<\/p>\n<p>Her most famous work was the Rutshire Chronicles series, which began with Riders in 1985. The books explored the scandals, romantic escapades, and social lives of Britain&#8217;s affluent, horse-obsessed elite.<\/p>\n<p>The sequel, Rivals, came out in 1988 and was recently adapted into a popular Disney+ television series. In the UK alone, her book sales exceeded 11 million copies.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Lesotho<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. Renowned author Dame Jilly Cooper, celebrated for her best-selling novels such as Rivals and Riders, passed away on Monday at the age of 88. In a statement, her children, Felix and Emily, described her as \u201cthe shining light\u201d of their lives and said her sudden passing had left them completely shocked. &#8220;We [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":62557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[6613,245,1219],"class_list":["post-62558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-culture-and-arts","tag-lesotho","tag-literature"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Bestselling author Jilly Cooper dies at 88 - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Renowned author Dame Jilly Cooper, celebrated for her best-selling novels such as Rivals and Riders, passed away on Mond ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bestselling-author-jilly-cooper-dies-at-88\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bestselling author Jilly Cooper dies at 88\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Renowned author Dame Jilly Cooper, celebrated for her best-selling novels such as Rivals and Riders, passed away on Mond ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bestselling-author-jilly-cooper-dies-at-88\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-06T16:44:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-06T17:22:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/10\/sm_1759758665.696406.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"864\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"486\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bestselling-author-jilly-cooper-dies-at-88#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bestselling-author-jilly-cooper-dies-at-88\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Bestselling author Jilly Cooper dies at 88\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-06T16:44:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-06T17:22:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bestselling-author-jilly-cooper-dies-at-88\"},\"wordCount\":153,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bestselling-author-jilly-cooper-dies-at-88#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/10\/sm_1759758665.696406.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Culture and Arts\",\"Lesotho\",\"literature\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"miscellaneous\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bestselling-author-jilly-cooper-dies-at-88#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bestselling-author-jilly-cooper-dies-at-88\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bestselling-author-jilly-cooper-dies-at-88\",\"name\":\"Bestselling author Jilly Cooper dies at 88 - 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