Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riders | 1985 | Jilly Cooper | Buy |
| 2 | Rivals | 1988 | Jilly Cooper | N/A |
| 3 | Rivals / Players | 1988 | Jilly Cooper | Buy |
| 4 | Polo | 1991 | Jilly Cooper | Buy |
| 5 | The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous | 1993 | Jilly Cooper | Buy |
| 6 | Appassionata | 1996 | Jilly Cooper | Buy |
| 7 | Score! | 1998 | Jilly Cooper | Buy |
| 8 | Pandora | 2002 | Jilly Cooper | Buy |
| 9 | Wicked! | 2006 | Jilly Cooper | Buy |
| 10 | Jump! | 2010 | Jilly Cooper | Buy |
| 11 | Mount! | 2016 | Jilly Cooper | Buy |
The Rutshire Chronicles is Jilly Cooper’s best-loved series, set in the fictional English county of Rutshire. Starting with Riders in 1985, each book takes on a different world of the English upper classes. Riders is about show jumping, Rivals deals with the cutthroat competition for a television franchise, Polo moves into the world of international polo, and Appassionata enters the classical music scene. Through it all, a large cast of recurring characters weave in and out of each other’s lives with plenty of wit, romance, and scandal.
The series is famous for its big casts, its sense of humor, and its frank approach to sex and relationships. Rupert Campbell-Black, the arrogant but irresistible show jumper introduced in Riders, is the series’ most enduring character, appearing across multiple books as he grows older but no less trouble. The novels are long and packed with subplots, making them ideal for readers who like to sink into a world and stay there for a while. Cooper published the eleventh and most recent entry, Mount!, in 2016.