I have yet to try any of Jilly Cooper’s bonkbusters (Obituary, 6 October) but loved her column in the Sunday Times and read all her 1970s “permissive novels”, so when our first daughter was born in 1977, I knew at once that I wanted to call her Harriet.
I discovered recently that one of our oldest friends, an English scholar and great admirer of Jane Austen, had believed for almost 50 years that Harriet was named after a character in Emma. I was reluctant to shatter his fond illusions, but as my personal tribute to Jilly Cooper have decided I will now do so.
