As a longtime Jilly Cooper fan, I lapped up the TV adaptation of Rivals. There were so many fantastic moments: Maud O’Hara arriving at her own party dressed up to the nines, riding on a camel; David Tennant, as TV mogul Tony Baddingham, smashing up the Corinium Studios set when his arch enemy Rupert Campbell-Black scores a key point in their rivalry. My most memorable scene, however, had nothing to do with shoulder pads and parties. First, some backstory.
My mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in January 2025, though for the previous few months it had become clear to me that she had some form of dementia. It came on fast, triggered by a bowel illness. Suddenly she sounded confused on the phone, though it was hard to tell even this because she stopped calling so often. She and I had been accustomed to speaking daily, phoning just to chat, check a recipe, gossip – but now she stopped initiating those calls. Her WhatsApp messaging became so erratic on a family group chat that my cousin offered to go round after work to check Mum’s phone for a virus.
