Jilly Cooper’s Polo – it’s like Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings – anatomically exact. But it’s not half bad. A simple read, from beginning to end. There is more to polo than I thought.
Golding’s ‘not half bad’ is a traditionally British understatement – he meant that the book was really quite good. And I love his phrasing of ‘anatomically exact’, which definitely suits the raunchy work of Cooper! We don’t know if he ever read Rivals but I was delighted to find out that he and his wife Ann met Jilly Cooper in 1981 at a party. He recalls:
‘Otherwise the party was dullish. Oh – we were both kissed by Jilly Cooper for what that’s worth.’
The image shows Golding’s copy of Polo, alongside a photograph of Ann.
