Our Jilly Cooper episode show notes and recipes

A good shepherd's pie recipe, all the Jilly-related and inspired links and more books and cosy things to read, cook and listen to.

This episode (click below to listen if you haven’t yet!), we are talking Dame Jilly Cooper, and mostly about 80s bonkbuster Rivals. Set and written in the 80s, a time that, in this book at least and through today’s lens, feels both more problematic and more innocent at the same time.

Jilly Cooper's Rivals

We initially set out to focus on her latest book Tackle, but both decided Rivals was a bit more fun. So off we go!

Rivals is peppered with puns, populated by loyal labradors, full of sexy times and set in the glorious Gloucestershire countryside.

And all of this is fuelled by a steady diet of nursery and comfort food.

Think shepherd’s pie, fry-ups, puddings, quiches, coq au vin or as Jilly calls it, ‘cock-up au vin’, Yorkshire puddings, casseroles and platters of stilton and oatcakes all washed down with Buck’s Fizz, endless bottles of Sancerre and large tumblers of whiskey (depending on the time of day).

The men eat with abandon, and the women are perpetually on diets, always picking at a lettuce leaf.

Rivals is having a reboot this year, with Disney dropping an 8-part series at some point this year. We CANNOT WAIT (it’s possible Sophie is a little more excited about this than Germaine), to see the casting play out, especially for everyone’s favourite rascal Rupert Cambpell Black (hopefully better than the early 90s movie adaptation that I think we can all agree didn’t quite hit the mark).

And we can’t wait to see one of our favourite’s David Tennant as the evil Lord Baddingham. And here’s an excuse to share this clip where David tells us it’s all going to be ok (couldn’t love this more).

Links to podcasts, books, articles we mentioned in this episode