The article reflects on the influence of Jilly Cooper's writing, notably her novel 'Riders,' which features charged sexual encounters and vivid imagery. An admiration for Cooper's erotic prose is evident, as the author captures the enthralling nature of a particular sentence. The writer reminisces about discovering Cooper's work at a young age in a library, highlighting the unexpected and formative literary experiences that shaped her own writing. The piece connects Cooper's influence to the author's own novel, 'The Confidence Woman,' which explores themes of deception and personal growth.
Wondering if she had a ginger bush, he felt the stirrings of lust. It's an electrifying sentence, penned by who else? the English novelist Dame Jilly Cooper in her 1985 novel Riders appearing during a charged encounter between a flame-haired socialite and bad-boy aristocrat Rupert Campbell-Black.
I first came across Jilly Cooper at my local library aged around nine or 10. My mum used to take me and my sister to the library all the time.
I like to imagine the author on her estate in Gloucestershire in the moments she wrote these inspiring 13 words: pounding the keys of her typewriter in a ferocious sexual trance, nostrils aflare.
Why did I decide, many years later, to draw on this experience and include a Cooper quote in my own novel? My book, The Confidence Woman, is about a con artist, and I wanted to show something of the character's formative years.
Collection
[
|
...
]