Jilly Cooper

I've got a book coming out soon so I just must get some weight off.

I wrote my earliest piece for The Sunday Times about being a young wife.

If you look across the valley, you can see exactly what I mean: about four beautiful houses, and you think something is happening in each of them. It's like a mural.

My own parents loved each other very much.

The male is a domestic animal which, if treated with firmness and kindness, can be trained to do most things.

I love the long grass coming up to meet the willows.

You've simply got to go on and on with your family and friends and tell them how much you love them because you never know whether they'll be there tomorrow, do you?

For sheer sexiness, a man must be beautiful. Funny. yes. Clever, no.

I have a theory that the secret of marital happiness is simple: drink in different pubs to your other half.

I think it bespeaks a generous nature, a man who can cook.

I would really like to spend more time with the family. Every time I go abroad I miss them all dreadfully.

I live at home and, if I want to start work at 11 o'clock, I can.