Jilly Cooper
From Bob Marley to Schubert. Writer Jilly Cooper makes her castaway choices. With Kirsty Young. From 2016.
Kirsty Young’s castaway is the writer Jilly Cooper.
Her long writing career spans newspaper columns for the Sunday Times and the Mail on Sunday, non-fiction books on class, marriage and animals in war and novels that sell in their millions. Her romances set in the late seventies - including 'Bella', 'Harriett', 'Imogen' and 'Prudence' – were followed by 'Riders' in 1985, the first of her Rutshire Chronicles. Set mainly in the Cotswolds, they are racy and raunchy page-turners exposing the scandalous – and often hilarious - goings on among the British upper classes.
Born in 1937 in Essex, she was brought up in Yorkshire and enjoyed a happy childhood surrounded by dogs and ponies. At boarding school she earned the nickname, ‘the unholy terror’ and having failed to get into Oxford and being sacked from a number of jobs for her inability to type, she turned to journalism before publishing her first book, 'How to Stay Married' in 1969.
She married Leo Cooper in 1961 and, unable to have children of their own, the couple adopted Felix and Emily in the late 1960s. The couple were married for 52 years before his death in 2013.
Producer: Cathy Drysdale
First broadcast on ѿý Radio 4 in 2016.
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You'll find one of her books on every bookshelf wherever you go. Why is she so appealing?
Clips
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Jilly Cooper: ‘Luck... a very nice man and creaking bed-springs’
Duration: 00:40
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Jilly Cooper: ‘One didn’t kiss them’
Duration: 02:56
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Jilly Cooper: ‘I didn’t care whose ankles I hit’
Duration: 03:56
Music Played
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Franz Schubert
Das Wandern
Performer: Dietrich Fischer‐Dieskau. Performer: Gerald Moore.- Die Schöne Müllerin.
- Deutsche Grammophon.
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Julie Andrews & Christopher Plummer
Something Good
- The Sounds of Music- Original Soundtrack Recording.
- RCA.
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Johannes Brahms
Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15
Performer: John Lill. Orchestra: Hallé. Conductor: James Loughran.- Brahms Concerto No. 1.
- Academy Sound and Vision.
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Elvis Presley
Cant Help Falling in Love
- Blue Hawaii.
- RCA.
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Richard Strauss
Des Helden Weltflucht und Vollendung
Orchestra: Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Daniel Barenboim.- Ampassionata The Music from the Book.
- Warner Classics.
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Bob Marley
Buffalo Solider
- Legend.
- Tuff Gong.
-
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE
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Felix Mendelssohn
He, Watching Over Israel, Slumbers Not
Choir: London Symphony Chorus. Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Performer: Roderick Elms.- Mendelssohn: Elijah.
- Chandos.
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Band of HM Coldstream Guards
Heres to the Heroes
- Heroes.
- Decca.
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BOOK CHOICE
The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
LUXURY ITEM
A sack of nuts
Credits
Role | Contributor |
---|---|
Presenter | Kirsty Young |
Interviewed Guest | Jilly Cooper |
Producer | Cathy Drysdale |
Broadcasts
- Sun 31 Jul 2016 11:15ѿý Radio 4
- Fri 5 Aug 2016 09:00ѿý Radio 4
- Sun 7 Feb 2021 10:00ѿý Radio 4 Extra
- Sun 7 Feb 2021 21:00ѿý Radio 4 Extra
- Thu 11 Feb 2021 11:00ѿý Radio 4 Extra
- Thu 11 Feb 2021 21:00ѿý Radio 4 Extra
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