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Just when you start to like her though she turns into this horrible person who is sleeping with Rupert while still professing to adore Taggie. They are long and complex with lots of characters with all the books in the series having characters from earlier books. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. There are the expected outrageous and enjoyable puns, but, why bother to plough through nearly 600 pages?
I'm scanning my way through the endless chapters on the intricacies of a local horse race in the hope of finding a few words on humans, preferably one I know, or a crumb or two of humour or raunch. Also some very crude national stereotypes (which to be fair has always been the case but particularly glaring here). Back to Mount - I got confused over the sheer amount of stable hands and couldn't work who was who and who they worked for.I like learning more about the world of horse racing and the sort of ‘how the other half live’ insight which we as readers get in these books. Glancing up into Jan's film-star face, marvellously strong features, lifted by a huge smile, dark red hair visible in the V of an open-neck check shirt, Gav suddenly felt raped. The human characters are very realistic with all their flaws and strengths, and the animals in the story are almost human in their personalities. If you were disappointed by some of non-horse novels since Polo, you'll be delighted once again with Mount!
A read through the acknowledgements shows an impressive range of A-listers from the racing world and the author clearly felt the need to toss as much information as possible about UK horse-racing into the story, which led to random chunks of info-dump that should never have escaped an editor's red pen. I get that Cooper has her style and her brand - and, fuck me, I love that as much as the next die hard fangirl - but it's disappointing that her editor wasn't able to coax her into something a little more, for the want of a better word, woke. Everyone had aged - they don't have the same edge - and in the end, were considering how to shape their lives so they could enjoy more time with one another.The Blacks’ is a frequently used phrase and then softened by highlighting the fact that Rupert and Taggie adopted black children. And predictably, subterfuge puts Rupert's horses and staff in harm's way - with any number of possible suspects. Giving her cancer meant she didn't have to actually do anything - she never did learn to assert herself. I am not usually a fan drama - this reads like a soapie - but this is so fast paced that I absolutely flew through the nearly 600 pages in only a few days.
He is determined to beat his detested rival Cosmo which means abandoning his racing empire and his darling wife Taggie and chasing winners worldwide. Using this book as a guide to British humour would leave one with the impression that a good joke is something crude mixed with something racist, barely advanced from Fawlty Towers.I so appreciate Cooper's writing what I believe is the end of the Rutshire Chronicles, which concluded on a sweetly reflective note. What I do have a problem with is that we are supposed to consider this a happy ending, with a literal tribute to Rupert at the end.
If you've read other books in the "Rutminster" series, you'll immediately recognize all the old favourite characters. It's still a good book and nice to revisit old friends even if it's briefly but hope they don't deteriorate further. So when I realised there was a newer book (okay, seven years after the fact I realised this), I had to get a copy. It is not at all fine to be greedy; to gossip about someone while pretending to pity them, or show off about – or even mention – your children. How absolutely glorious to spend a few days in Rutshire with Rupert, Taggie and a host of familiar and unfamiliar people, rogues, lovers, horses and dogs.
Jilly could have written about the ups and downs of a long marriage but she really didn't need there to be butterc**t. That sounds like actual rape to me - do you think because Tabitha escapes before ejaculation occurs (because Gertrude bites Rannaldini), Jilly has decided it was only attempted rape? Characters have aged, some poorly, with Rupert's father needing a homecare aid, or "carer", a reflection of Jilly's personal life with her husband. The animal rights stuff that she tries to shoe horn into every book now is getting tedious especially she's clearly fond of fox hunting - so all animals are equal but some are more equal than others - eh Jilly?
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