It appears Jilly Cooper’s muses take their role seriously. At the launch of her latest book Tackle! last night, Andrew Parker Bowles arrived in impeccable black tie. It’s an open secret that the Queen’s ex-husband is the inspiration for Rupert Campbell-Black, the licentious antihero of Cooper’s Rutshire Chronicles. In the latest he takes over a failing local football club, and naturally piques the curiosity of a gaggle of WAGs.
But fans of Campbell-Black’s rutting and romping may be disappointed. 86-year-old Jilly told the crowd at Hatchards in Piccadilly that Tackle! is “not quite as raunchy as some of the other books”. Luckily she placated everyone with some locker room jokes which are not fit for print.
Tackle! is Cooper’s first foray into the world of football, and she received a personalised football shirt at the party. Her inspiration? “I just sort of met Alex Ferguson for lunch and he was lovely,” she told us. “We chatted, and I thought it would be a fun thing to write about.”
Cooper gave her thanks to footballers for the inspiration. “People constantly moan that they’re paid too much but I think they deserve every penny for the pleasure and excitement they bring to the world,” she said. She also thanked her agent Felicity Blunt, “and her heartthrob husband, Stanley Tucci.”
We caught up with Nicky Haslam about his scrap with Martin Lewis, before he went off to compare hairdos with Caitlin Moran. It was a character in Cooper's novel Rivals that inspired Moran to change her name from Catherine to Caitlin aged thirteen, because she thought it sounded more exciting.
Congratulations to...
Sophie Cannell, Damien Hirst's partner, who announced her pregnancy on Instagram last night.
