Report of Dame Jilly Cooper's Memorial Service

Southwark Cathedral; 30 January 2026
by Harry Mount

Less than a year after Dame Jilly Cooper addressed the Anthony Powell Society for its 25^th anniversary party, the Society was out in force at her memorial service at Southwark Cathedral on 30 January.

Ferdinand Mount, the Society's President, represented the Society. Standing next to him was Anthony Powell's granddaughter, Georgia Beaufort, and her husband, Harry Beaufort. Jilly Cooper was a friend of Anthony Powell's and a huge fan of his works. The Queen, a great friend of Jilly's, attended the service.

The Dean of Southwark saluted Jilly's "champagne soul" and declared it was an occasion of "pure celebration". The Dean, who officiated at her daughter Emily's wedding, remembered Jilly trying "to get the vicar drunk" at the wedding. She had suggested to him that her next book might be titled In Your Confessional.

The Dean recalled her autumn funeral in Gloucestershire last year, when "five horses, in formation, with military precision, moved across their field and stared at her resting place".

Jilly's agent, Felicity Blunt, whose husband, actor Stanley Tucci, was in the congregation, gave the eulogy. She remembered how Jilly had been "my Taylor Swift" at school and how Rivals had been "a literary sex education". The books were banned at Jilly's daughter's school, until Jilly pointed out they paid for her school fees. "The embargo was swiftly lifted."

Blunt said Jilly combined "the everyday and the extraordinary" and "the salacious and the meticulously researched", along with an "Austenesque dissection of class and social codes". Jilly, she said, "wrote only for the aim of adding to the sum of human happiness". And, along the way, her 40 books sold over 12 million copies.

Jilly had been the most modest of writers, with her "inability to take a compliment". She was never rude to anyone, except the squirrels on her bird table, who she ordered to "f off". When Blunt visited her to discuss her books, Jilly plied with her drink – even in the pudding, "fruit salad macerated in sloe gin".

Blunt recounted Jilly's last charming, effusive phone message, with her joyous discovery that the last two digits of Blunt's phone number were "soixante-neuf". Blunt saluted her "husky and giggly laugh" and her "orgasmic" delight at the success of the recent Rivals adaptation.

Dame Joanna Lumley, another great fan of Anthony Powell, read extracts from Jilly's The Common Years, written in the days when she lived in Putney, before moving to Gloucestershire – reincarnated by Jilly in her novels as "Rutshire".

Prayers for nature, journalism, authors, animals, family, friendship and music were read by Alan Titchmarsh, Caitlin Moran, Helen Fielding, Derek Jacobi, her granddaughter Scarlett Cooper, Brigadier Andrew Parker Bowles and Simon McMurtrie.

Alex Hassell and Bella Maclean, who played Rupert Campbell-Black and Taggie O'Hara in the adaptation of Jilly's Rivals (1988), read extracts from the book.

Rupert Everett read The Parting Glass, the Celtic folk song – "So fill to me the parting glass, God bless, and joy be with you all".
The hymns were All people that on earth do dwell, I Vow to Thee, My Country, Come Down, O Love Divine and Jerusalem.
The choir sang Fauré's Cantique de Jean Racine, Elgar's Lux Aeterna and John Rutter's The Lord Bless You and Keep You.

The family provided buckets of Moët & Chandon for the congregation after the service.

The recessional was Verdi's "Grand March" from Aida. The cathedral's bellringers played their own composition, Rutshire Surprise Maximus, in honour of Rutshire's divine creator.

This is a version of an article by Harry Mount that first appeared in The Oldie magazine. It is reproduced by kind permission.
Image: Matt Bigwood for Stroud Times