Jilly Cooper: Men are being diminished now

Bestselling author Jilly Cooper says that men are being “diminished” and that women are attracted to a “dominant male”.

The writer, 81, dubbed “the queen of the bonkbuster,” is known for racy reads such as Riders, Rivals and Polo.

She said that “everybody is too PC” now and that the Fifty Shades Of Grey series of books were a hit because they feature a “tough man”.

She said: “I read it. The thing I love about her (author EL James) is that she has sold 100 million copies and she is published by my publishers so they can afford me!”

Cooper told the Press Association: “I think because men are being so diminished now, everywhere – Me Too, Me Too, Me Too. I think (protagonist) Christian Grey is whacking away and he’s a dominant male.

“I think secretly women, although they want to be in the ascendancy, they are quite attracted by the idea of a dominant male… They obviously like a very tough man.”

Cooper, who was a guest at the Oldie Of The Year awards, also revealed that progress on her new novel, set in the world of football, was not as quick as she would like.

“I’m working on a novel about football. It’s going very, very, very, very, very slowly,” she said.

“It’s so difficult. For two years… I have research up to the ceiling and I am just working on the first chapter at the moment, which is shaming.”

She added: “It’s a very complicated game. It’s terribly complicated. I am working on it. I know about all these things that they do, corners and things.

“Riders took me 15 years. I keep saying to myself, ‘Don’t worry darling, it’s only been two years’.”

And she said: “I start (work) at about 10 and I work through until about three, then I go and feed the birds and feed my dog and then I go back to it. I work all the time”

Cooper said that her own books “have very dominant characters”, and added: “There is a very good line in one of the books I wrote, the Pony Club, they are all suing (a man) because he didn’t make a pass at them.

“Everybody sues everybody for jumping on them but they sue him for not jumping on them because he is so gorgeous.”