Rivals

By: Jilly Cooper

Narrated by: Georgia Tennant

Soon to be an original streaming series on Hulu!
"Fun, sexy and unputdownable--a classic." --Marian Keyes
"Flawlessly entertaining." --Helen Fielding
"Joyful and mischievous." --Jojo Moyes

Fleabag meets Succession as rival TV execs bid for the local franchise in this exuberant romp filled with drama, steam, and comedy.

Into the cut-throat world of Corinium television comes Declan O'Hara, a mega-star of great glamour and integrity with a radiant feckless wife, a handsome son and two ravishing teenage daughters. Living rather too closely across the valley is Rupert Campbell-Black, divorced and as dissolute as ever, and now the Tory Minister for Sport.

Declan needs only a few days at Corinium to realise that the Managing Director, Lord Baddingham, is a crook who has recruited him merely to help retain the franchise for Corinium. Baddingham has also enticed Cameron Cook, a gorgeous but domineering woman executive, to produce Declan's programme. Declan and Cameron detest each other, provoking a storm of controversy into which Rupert plunges with his usual abandon.

As a rival group emerges to pitch for the franchise, reputations ripen and decline, true love blossoms and burns, marriages are made and shattered, and sex raises its (delicious) head at almost every throw as, in bed and boardroom, the race is on to capture the Cotswold Crown.

©2024 Jilly Cooper (P)2024 Forever

Critic reviews

"Jilly Cooper is the very best ... elegant, glamourous, wonderful fun."—Daily Mail

"A combination of drama, sex, and good social comedy ... unputdownable." —Sunday Times

I’m now hooked on this series

I, like many, listened to this thanks to the series and the fact that Georgia was the reader. I wasn’t sure how much I’d like this, but I was instantly hooked.

The story itself is marvelous, and Georgia’s voice work makes it all the better. Now please excuse me while I binge the rest of this series.

Storytelling

Georgia Tennant was fabulous! She did an excellent job defining the voices (both literal and figurative) of each character. She needs to record all of Jilly Cooper’s books.

I’ve never felt so conflicted about an audiobook

First the good thing - Georgia Tennant is now my favorite narrator. Period. Her ease switching accents is astounding, she makes it easy to keep a whole host of characters straight as you read. I will buy anything she narrates in the future, hands down.

Also, the author can really write. Very well plotted, described, and executed.

Minor spoilers ahead:

Now, I don’t know if it’s the age of the book, and I was in American elementary school when the events of this book take place so I don’t know how accurate it is, but the sheer amount of sexism, homophobia and pedophilia is overwhelming. The casual banter about adult men chasing teen girls is crazy to me. I’m sure I’m supposed to think it’s romantic that a man old enough to be her father gets the girl, but I think it’s gross. I had to stop listening one day because it was making me feel ill.

The relationships are either shallow, or they are abusive. People fall in and out of “love” at the drop of a dress and back out again just as fast. If this is even a slightly accurate representation of either real life in the 80s, or the fantasy of the time, I now know why all GenX seems to have divorced parents.

This is a tour de force for Georgia, but I won’t be adding any more books from this author to my wish list.

Masterful

A stunning and refreshing update to a well-loved work! Georgia’s voice work is superb and so easy to listen to