The human characters are very realistic with all their flaws and strengths, and the animals in the story are almost human in their personalities. Absolutely everybody read Jilly – not just the world-conquering Riders, but all the way back to the Emilys and Olivias in their dainty 70s nighties.

For regular readers of Cooper's novels I am sure that many characters played major roles in previous books in the series. Still, enough of the novel was diverting to justify reading to the end and seeing where Rupert Campbell-Black finished off.That sounds like actual rape to me - do you think because Tabitha escapes before ejaculation occurs (because Gertrude bites Rannaldini), Jilly has decided it was only attempted rape? When I got to the end I actually re-read the last couple of chapters as I wasn't ready to let the story go yet.

The 'chemistry' between him and Gala is non-existent, the sex is gross (I'll be attempting to wash "buttercunt" out of my mind for a good while) and no one really suffers as a result of the gross breech of trust except poor ol' Taggie…who suffers and suffers and suffers and then gets cancer FFS.I was leaning more towards my love of the wonderful characters who I had fell in love with since my grandma first lent me The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous when I was 16.

Even those fans of subtlety might be disappointed only by how much they enjoy the whole mad confection.

Then Gala, a grieving and ravishing Zimbabwean widow, arrives as a carer for Rupert's father and both Gav and Rupert are drawn to her.