| the couples stay happily married. And, sadly, I do think it is difficult to present a very cheerful picture
of marriage these days, with so many ending in divorce, but I think people should try. Bib: Given the number of characters in your novels, do you feel that you, like Rannaldini and Abby, are a conductor, controlling your creations like the members of an orchestra? It seems amazing how you manage to tie together all the loose ends and produce such satisfying conclusions. Jilly: Oh well I don't... Bib: We would beg to differ. Jilly: You're so sweet. I've got completely new characters in the new book, although Rupert turns up now and again. The new book I'm writing is on a wonderful subject. It's about the art world. If you're very rich and you have lots of paintings, you can avoid tax by showing them to the public now and again. So in one of the scenes in the new book, there's a horde of women and gays hurtling in coaches down the motorway to have a look at Rupert rather than his paintings. I hope it is going to be a hysterically funny scene. Bib: You present minorities in a very positive light. There are very sympathetically portrayed gay characters, especially in Score. Do you feel an affinity with gays? Jilly: Yes. Love them. Bib: People say that they're more refined, more polite... Jilly: Well that's not true at all. I love heterosexuals too. I love them both. Gays have had a bloody awful time. It's getting better now, but the way they're treated in politics is just appalling, the whole Portillo thing, and Mandleson [allegedly homosexual English politicians - ed.] ... awful. I just wish people would stop worrying about other people's sex lives. Listen, this is a complete red herring, but I think in a way we are doomed, because I don't see how we'll ever have any heroes, the press will never allow us to, they always dig up some skeleton, I mean, what hope has someone like Prince William got? They will find something awful to write about him soon won't they? Bib: The females in your novels, even those who seem to fill rather incidental roles, are fully formed, independent characters. It is often the males who are made to look weak to the credit of women. Do you think of yourself as a feminist writer? Jilly: No (laughter). I don't. I've never been an anything. I've just been... everybody should be happy. The third world war is being fought between the sexes in the last twenty years and the casualties are all around us. The problem is men seem to have roughly divided into awful nerdish wimps or super studs, who screw everyone and move on. Of course there are nice men, but they're very thin on the ground, so a lot of women lead very lonely lives which is sad. But I think the men are sad too. Bib: In Score we found the parallel you drew between Don Carlos and the present royal family fascinating. Jilly: No one picked up the Don Carlos thing: I think the reviewers were so busy slagging it off they didn't notice the connection. I thought it was one of the best bits. Bib: We wanted to know if Gordon Dillan was based upon a real person? Nigel Dempster (leading London society columnist - ed.), perhaps? Jilly: Certainly not Nigel, who is a great friend, and no one in particular: It was just a composite Fleet Street (shorthand for the UK newspaper industry - ed.) baron hood. Bib: Finally, what does one buy the girl who has everything? Jilly: Get her name printed on a bottle of champagne. Jilly Cooper was interviewed by Alexander Preston of Bibliomania. |
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