Non-Fiction Books
Hardcover. Signed and dedicated by author on title page. With drawings by Timothy Jaques. Jacket is worn and lightly scored, with minor nick on rear lower edge. A few minor marks on boards. Hardcover leading corners, edges and spine ends are lightly sunned, bumped and worn. Page block is marked. Penned dedication on title page (separate from author's). Pages are clean. HCW
As well as Lisa, we meet Hester, Julia, Helen and Caroline, and a host of other devastating girls, falling in and out of love, finding, losing (and often finding again sometimes in the most unexpected places) the men of their dreams.
Quotations and excerpts from writings by women authors throughout history explore a variety of subjects including education, love, marriage, friendships, animals, domestic life, culture, government, and faith
More infectious humour and witty observations from Jilly Cooper, whose latest collection of articles, originally published in The Sunday Times and the Mail on Sunday, includes a light-hearted and irreverent account of a visit to Australia, published for the first time in its entirety. Scenes nearer home, viewed with equal disrespect include th ediverse worlds of a vet's conference, fashionable charity balls, the London to Brighton run and Hen Night in Wandsworth. And, as always, Jilly Cooper is a devastating, hilarious and sometimes moving chronicler of the minutiae of family life, with some fascinating sidelights and side-swipes at the middle-class educational rat race along the way.
Pigeons carrying vital messages to and from the beleaguered city during the Siege of Paris; horses and mules struggling through miles of fetid mud to bring ammunition to the front in the Great War; dogs sniffing out mines for the British invasion force in the Second World War - countless brave animals have played their part in the long, cruel history of war. Some have won medals for gallantry - like G.I. Joe, the American pigeon who saved 100 British lives in Italy, and Rob, the black and white mongrel who made over twenty parachute jumps with the SAS. Too many others have died abandoned, in agony and alone, after serving their country with distinction. Jilly Cooper has here written a tribute to the role of animals in wartime. It is a tragic and horrifying story - yet it has its lighter moments too: a hilarious game of musical chairs played on camels during the Desert Campaign; and the budgie who remarked, when carried from a bombed-out East End tenement, ''This is my night out''. This is a vivid and unforgettable record of man''s inhumanity to animals, but also an astonishing story of courage, intelligence, devotion and resilience.
The hilarious and indispensable guide to coping with Christmas — whether you love it or loathe it. Christmas is looming. Will your mother-in-law present you with yet another hideous sweater this year? How are you going to cope with Granny’s pekenese or the undesirable in-laws? Has the row about where to spend the holiday already started — and it’s only August? Jilly Cooper has the answer to everything. Whether you should seek refuge in the cooking sherry or suggest a wholesome family walk, Jilly offers, in her own irrepressible style, sound but often hilarious advice about how to get through the roller-coaster ride we call Christmas. With the help of the perfect Christmas family — Scarlett O’Aga, the Xmasochistic housewife, her wayward husband Noel, his seductive mistress Ms Stress, their four delightful children Holly, Robin, Carol and Nicholas, and their dog Difficult Patch.
Jilly Cooper's witty thumbnail sketch of office life - part valentine, part poison pen letter - offers a vivid evocation of the world in which many of us spend a large part of our lives. There will be few office workers, whether they are bosses, sekketries or office crones, who do not recognize the Machiavellian politics and the lunacies she describes. The topics covered by this survival guide range from 'The Hierarchy' and 'Office Happenings' to 'Extra-mural Activities' and 'The Firing Squad'. Early in her career the author worked in an office and she has many friends, including a husband, who still do: but it will come as no surprise to readers of this classic volume to learn that since its publication she has been self-employed.
Over the past 21 years Jilly Cooper has written a selection of best-selling books, mixing outrageous anecdotes from the lives of her family and friends with shrewd and wicked social satire and criticism. Men and Super Men was followed by Women and Super Women and then by the devastatingly outspoken bombshell, Class ; the poignantly evocative The Common Years ; the indispensable How to Survive Christmas and the essential handbook for Nouveau-Rustics, Turn Right at the Spotted Dog.All these and more provide the material for Angels Rush In, a rich and sparkling selection made and introduced by the author herself.
When Jilly Cooper, then a young "Sunday Times" journalist, was asked to write a book on marriage, she had been married to Leo Cooper for a mere seven years. Now they are celebrating their Golden Wedding, and although the institution of marriage has changed a great deal since this book was first written, much of Jilly's advice - frank, fearless, often hilarious, but always wise - still holds good. From the wedding and the honeymoon to life afterwards, including how to deal with the in-laws and how to tell if you spouse is having an affair, she dispenses anecdotes, jokes, common sense and endless optimism and fun.
Whatever their grading, Super Woman or Slut, Jilly submits all women to remorseless scrutiny. In public and private, home, office or bed, none escapes her beady eye- from debs to divorcees, models to maiden aunts, tarts to Tory ladies, this is Jilly Cooper's brilliantly funny guide to the female sex.
During the ten years she lived at the edge of Putney Common Jilly Cooper walked daily on this expanse of green. For most of the time she lived there she kept a diary, noting the effects of the changing seasons and writing about her encounters with dogs and humans. The book is a distillation of those diaries:an affectionate and enthralling and enthralling portrait - warts and all - of life on Putney Common. Never has Jilly Cooper written more lyrically about flowers, trees, birds and the natural world; more tellingly about the sorrows - as well as the joys - of caring for dogs and children; or more outrageously about the gossip, illicit romances and jealousies of life in a small community.
‘ One truth I have learnt, as middle age enmeshes me like Virginia creeper, is that I shall never change―because my capacity for self-improvement is absolutely nil .’ A classic collection of journalism from the legendary Jilly Cooper. Wonderfully warm and astonishingly acerbic, Jilly’s observations from her days as a much-loved newspaper columnist cover everything on sex, socialising and survival - from marriage and friendship; the minutiae of family life and the tedium of going to visit people for the weekend; to the stress of hosting dinner parties and the descent of middle age. Entertaining and full of heart, join Jilly Between the Covers to explore the very highs and lows of everyday life. Praise for Jilly Cooper: 'Joyful and mischievous' Jojo Moyes 'Fun, sexy and unputdownable' Marian Keyes 'Flawlessly entertaining' Helen Fielding