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Jilly Cooper's 'Tackle!' given November pub date
Jilly Cooper’s new novel, Tackle!, will be published in November, Transworld has confirmed.
Larry Finlay, Transworld m.d., and editorial director Sally Williamson acquired world English language rights to Cooper’s latest romp from Felicity Blunt at Curtis Brown. It will be published on 9th November 2023 accompanied by a "major marketing campaign focusing on booksellers and driving sales right up to Christmas and beyond", Transworld said. The 448-page book will retail at £22.
“Tackle! sees Cooper’s beloved hero Rupert Campbell-Black take to the football field as he becomes chairman of a local club and sets about masterminding their rise to the top of the Premier League,” the synopsis reads. “With Cooper’s signature blend of formidable characters and scandalous behaviour, it is the latest in her phenomenally bestselling Rutshire Chronicles series.”
The Penguin website reads: "Rupert Campbell-Black, undefeated race-horse owner and handsomest man in the world, is in the darkest of places. His adored wife, Taggie, is about to undergo chemotherapy, his beloved horse Love Rat has died, and now his daughter Bianca wants him to buy a languishing local football club – a sport Rupert knows nothing about – so she can return to Rutshire with her football star husband.
"Rupert’s first impressions of Searston Rovers are distinctly unfavourable. But swayed by Bianca and Taggie, soon Rupert has signed the deal. As Searston’s new owner, he won’t stand for anything less than victory in the Premier League, despite the odds being stacked against him. With help from the club’s ravishing and adorable secretary, Tember West, Rupert sets out to mastermind Searston’s rise to the top, starting with taking charge of the players - much to the fury of Searston’s manager."
Cooper, who is based in Gloucestershire, said: “Footballers bring such joy and excitement to the world. It has been both a delight and a privilege to write about them. I’ve had huge fun diving into the Beautiful Game.”
Finlay commented: “Jilly Cooper has been a shining star of Transworld’s list for over 40 years, and we are incredibly proud to publish her. In Tackle!, Jilly sweeps the reader up in the agony and the ecstasy of football, on and off the pitch, just as thrillingly as she has done in the equestrian world. Every new Jilly Cooper novel is a major publishing event, and we cannot wait to publish Tackle!”’
Williamson said: “Nobody else writes stories like Jilly. With an unmissable, stand-out campaign from Transworld’s marketing and publicity teams, the release of Tackle! is going to set pulses racing and will be a giant hit this Christmas.”
Cooper has sold 2.15 million books sold for £15.1m in the Nielsen BookScan era, and her bestseller is 2007’s Wicked (Bantam Press), on 327,850 copies sold in paperback, according to Nielsen BookScan. The author has been awarded honorary doctorates by the Universities of Gloucestershire and Anglia Ruskin, and won the inaugural Comedy Women in Print lifetime achievement award in 2019. She received a CBE in 2018 for services to literature and charity.
Last year it was announced one of Jilly Cooper’s best-known novels, Rivals (Transworld), would be adapted for a Disney+ TV series, as reported by the Guardian.
