Ilkley remembers childhood resident Dame Jilly

Dame Jilly Cooper opened Darwin Gardens in Ilkley in 2000

It is a place that she once described as "ravishingly beautiful" and held fond childhood memories of.

The author Dame Jilly Cooper, who has died aged 88, grew up in Ilkley, the West Yorkshire spa town where her family moved for her father's work.

She lived at Ilkley Hall, where his company was also based, and attended the fee-paying Moorfield School as a young child.

Ilkley's mayor, Councillor Jane Gibson, said Dame Jilly had a "soft spot" for the town, as she returned many times throughout her adult life.

Dame Jilly, who lived in Gloucestershire, died on Sunday morning after a fall.

The writer was known for her bestselling steamy romantic novels, including Riders in 1985 and Rivals in 1988 - which was later adapted into an eight-part series for Disney+.

She was 11 when her family moved into Ilkley Hall and she said the nearby moors had a "huge impact on my imagination".

Over the course of her lifetime, she sold more than 11 million books in the UK

Over the course of her lifetime, she sold more than 11 million books in the UK alone.

Gibson said: "What I understand from those people who knew her well, was that she was a bubbly character and I think that came through in her writing."

The novelist was born in Hornchurch in 1937 but her family returned to Yorkshire when she was a child.

Her great-great-grandfather was a Liberal MP for Leeds and founded The Leeds Mercury, a newspaper which merged with the Yorkshire Post.

Her grandfather went to St Peter's School in York, and then into the church.

While in Ilkley, Dame Jilly went to Moorfield before she was sent away to boarding school at the age of 11.

A spokesperson for the school said: "The Moorfield community was saddened to hear yesterday of the death of Dame Jilly Cooper.

"She was one of Moorfield's most famous pupils, having attended the Ilkley independent preparatory school during the war years of the 1940s and thereafter.

"In 1980, Jilly came back to visit to help celebrate the school's 50th anniversary. She remained a loyal supporter of Moorfield long after she left and had fond memories of her formative years at the school."

Dame Jilly described the school as "wonderful and happy" with "dazzling" teaching but admitted she was poor at games.

At the time she was a pupil, the school was based at the founder's home on West View before moving to its current site in 1968.

Dame Jilly was born in Essex and grew up in Ilkley and Surrey

In a colourful interview about her childhood in The Times in 2012, Dame Jilly said the family were given rooms in Ilkley Hall as part of her father's renumeration package when he became managing director of engineering firm Spooner, who also had their offices there.

She reminisced about holding parties in the gardens, riding her pony on Ilkley Moor and writing her first stories under an ash tree in the grounds before asking her father's secretaries to type them up.

The family left in 1956, when her father was sacked, and they returned to London.

She visited Ilkley Hall, by then owned by a property investment company, in 2012 and was able to see her old bedroom, which was being used as an office.

Her future husband, Leo Cooper, was a childhood friend from her time in Ilkley.

In 2000, she officially opened Darwin Gardens Millennium Green, an area of green space with a stepping stone maze, sundial and picnic benches just a few minutes' walk from the town centre.

The gardens stand on the site of the tennis courts which belonged to the Grade II-listed Ilkley Hall, off Wells Road.

Ilkley's mayor added: "She returned to Ilkley on several occasions and she obviously had a soft spot for Ilkley in her heart.

"She came and celebrated the anniversary of the King's Hall, our local theatre, which is brilliant, and she also 25 years ago opened Darwin Gardens, which is a community garden for people to go and enjoy."

Ilkley has a thriving writing community centred around The Grove Bookshop.

Manager Mike Sansbury said everyone at the shop was very sad to hear the news on Monday.

"Dame Jilly Cooper spent much of her childhood here in Ilkley and we always think of her as one of our local authors," he said.

"Her books found fans across the generations and, like Dame Jilly herself, they were lively, memorable and full of fun."

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