{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/679c3267811ecd43a9f19b7a/681d9a3127cd622638d0abc9?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"Bollinger, Board Battles and Bonking Galore: Jilly Cooper's Rivals ","thumbnail_width":200,"thumbnail_height":200,"thumbnail_url":"https://open-images.acast.com/shows/679c3267811ecd43a9f19b7a/1746860132352-ee59210c-cb5a-461d-9707-0f433ed76cd2.jpeg?height=200","description":"<p>Jilly Cooper’s Rivals (1988) is the ultimate bonkbuster - a story of professional rivalry in the Cotswold’s fast-set with lashings of sex thrown in. It follows a wide cast of characters as they jostle for power, conduct affairs with one another’s spouses, eat terrible 1980s food and listen endlessly to Chris de Burgh’s Lady in Red.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>Rivals was marketed as an airport book back in the day, but beneath the brash cover is a sophisticated story that draws in surprising ways from classic literature to create what is now considered to be a modern classic.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>Sophie and Jonty why they are so drawn to Rivals, what we can learn about the 1980s from reading it today, and the ways in which it engages with a wide range of literary influences, including Austen, Trollope and Yeats, but also Valley of the Dolls and the works of Jackie Collins and Danielle Steele.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>BOOKS DISCUSSED/ALLUDED TO:&nbsp;</p><p>Rivals (1988) by Jilly Cooper&nbsp;</p><p>Mansfield Park (1814) by Jane Austen&nbsp;</p><p>Pride and Prejudice (1813) by Jane Austen&nbsp;</p><p>The Wind Among the Reeds (1899) by WB Yeats&nbsp;</p><p>A Dance to the Music of Time (1951-1975) by Anthony Powell</p><p>Barchester Towers (1857) by Anthony Trollope&nbsp;</p><p>Possession (1990) by AS Byatt</p><p>Oscar and Lucinda (1988) by Peter Carey</p><p>Bilgewater (1977) by Jane Gardam&nbsp;</p><p>Middlemarch (1872) by George Eliot</p><p>Cocktail (1988) screenplay by Heywood Gould</p><p>Lady in Red (1986) by Chris de Burgh</p><p>Valley of the dolls (1966) by Jacqueline Susann</p><p>The Bitch (1979) by Jackie Collins&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>-- To join the Secret Life of Books Club visit: www.secretlifeofbooks.org</p><p>-- Please support us on Patreon to keep the lights on in the SLoB studio and get bonus content: patreon.com/secretlifeofbookspodcast</p><p>-- Follow us on our socials:</p><p>youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@secretlifeofbookspodcast/shorts</p><p>insta: https://www.instagram.com/secretlifeofbookspodcast/</p><p>bluesky: @slobpodcast.bsky.social</p><h1><br></h1>","author_name":"Sophie Gee and Jonty Claypole"}