"Would you like a large drink?" A visit to Dame Jilly Cooper’s house in the Cotswolds is everything you would hope it would be. It's just after midday, as displayed on the numerous clocks on the packed walls of her hall and living rooms. Almost every surface inch is taken up with art, family photos, framed cartoons or sporting memorabilia - including, rather unexpectedly, a signed Emile Heskey Liverpool shirt.
Despite the relatively early hour, the writer of some of the best-selling novels of the 1980s is keen to share the contents of her drinks cabinet. She believes in providing old-school hospitality at the former 14th Century monks' dormitory she has called home for more than 40 years, and where she lived with her husband Leo until his death in 2013. Earlier, on the way into her village, we drove past a jodhpur-clad gent on a horse, who gave us a roguish, charming smile.
He could have ridden straight off the pages of one of her Rutshire Chronicles books. Her so-called "bonkbusters" - a term Dame Jilly does not like - were set in the world of the horse-owning, bed-swapping, countryside-residing upper classes. "Low morals and high fences" is how she rather perfectly sums up the books.
With their mix of sex and scandal, they were publishing sensations. The second of the books, 1988's Rivals, has just been adapted into an eight-part Disney+ series with an all-star cast including Aidan Turner, David Tennant, Danny Dyer, Victoria Smurfit and Emily Atack. Dame Jilly served as a.
