Jilly Cooper - legendary author of Rivals - dies, aged 88

"Her love for all of her family and friends knew no bounds. Her unexpected death has come as a complete shock. We are so proud of everything she achieved in her life and can’t begin to imagine life without her infectious smile and laughter all around us."

Cooper began her career as a journalist, going on to write non-fiction but becoming best known for her work in the romance sphere of the literary world. Cooper was best known for the Rutshire Chronicles, a series of books which became word-of-mouth hits and transformed the genre in the UK.

More recently, Cooper's Rivals was adapted by Disney+ just last year with a star-studded series led by David Tennant, Aidan Turner and Alex Hassell. Cooper served as an executive producer on the series, previously describing it as an "absolutely wonderful" adaptation.

Upon the news of Cooper's passing, her agent Felicity Blunt posted a tribute, reading: "The privilege of my career has been working with a woman who has defined culture, writing and conversation since she was first published over 50 years ago.

"Jilly will undoubtedly be best remembered for her chart-topping series The Rutshire Chronicles and its havoc-making and handsome show-jumping hero Rupert Campbell-Black.

"You wouldn’t expect books categorised as bonkbusters to have so emphatically stood the test of time but Jilly wrote with acuity and insight about all things - class, sex, marriage, rivalry, grief and fertility."

She added: "Her plots were both intricate and gutsy, spiked with sharp observations and wicked humour. She regularly mined her own life for inspiration and there was something Austenesque about her dissections of society, its many prejudices and norms. But if you tried to pay her this compliment, or any compliment, she would brush it aside.

"She wrote, she said, simply ‘to add to the sum of human happiness’. In this regard as a writer she was and remains unbeatable. In her last few years Jilly added to her curriculum vitae by serving as an executive producer on the Happy Prince adaptation of her novel Rivals for Disney+.

"Her suggestions for story and dialogue inevitably layered and enhanced scripts and her presence on set was a joy for cast and crew alike. Emotionally intelligent, fantastically generous, sharply observant and utter fun Jilly Cooper will be deeply missed by all at Curtis Brown and on the set of Rivals."

"I have lost a friend, an ally, a confidante and a mentor. But I know she will live forever in the words she put on the page and on the screen."

Happy Prince – Dominic Treadwell-Collins's production company that developed Rivals – shared on social media: "We are broken hearted. Jilly was, is and always will be one of the world’s greatest storytellers and it has been the most incredible honour to have been able to work with her to adapt her incredible novels for television.

"Crawling around on her sitting room floor with storylines on pieces of paper, sitting up late at her kitchen table holding hands with love and our tummies with laughter, receiving scoldings and heaps of wisdom in equal measure, watching her eyes sparkling as she sat behind the monitor on set watching Rutshire brought to life - every moment spent with Jilly Cooper was bloody marvellous.

"We have been so lucky to be able to call her our friend - and know that her legacy will endure in her writing, her television and the encouragement to have fun that she gave us all. X"

Lee Mason, executive director of scripted for Disney+ EMEA also said in a statement to RadioTimes.com: "We are deeply shocked and saddened by the passing of the irreplaceable Dame Jilly Cooper – a trailblazer in British literature celebrated for her joyful, naughty and insightful writing in a world often too serious.

"It has been a privilege to bring her beloved world of Rivals to television. Our thoughts are with Jilly’s family, friends and fans as we raise a glass (of champagne, naturally) to her extraordinary legacy."