Oldie Towers is in mourning for Jilly Cooper, our patron saint and dream contributor. By Harry Mount, Oldie Editor
She was a natural journalist. That chatty style is deceptively tricky – much easier to be obscure than addictively readable. Her words were so original and spot-on. In this issue’s Christmas Gift Guide (which went to print before her death), she calls her beloved greyhounds ‘sofaholics’. Classic Jilly!
In our first issue in 1992, she wrote about her pin-ups in that sublime style. They included the late Duke of Beaufort (‘a mega-giggler’); Byron (‘ideal toyboy material’); and Horatius who kept the bridge (‘Being Roman, he was probably gay’).
From her breezy manner, you might think Jilly was cavalier. In fact, she was meticulous. When she addressed the Anthony Powell Society this year, she re-read his books and anxiously took copious notes. She was enchanting, of course.
On my desk, there’s a hallowed pile of thankyou cards. Jilly sent one whenever she wrote a divine article for us. I should have been thanking her. She finished that last piece, about greyhounds, only days ago. The last line is ‘They’re so loving and they give so much back.’ It applies to her in spades.
