Jilly Cooper, in her soooo '80s classic "Riders," introduced us to Jake Lovell (Aspirational gypsy. Rides horses), Helen Macauley (Hot American, lousy in bed. Rides horses), Rupert Campbell-Black (Brutish aristocrat. Hairy chested. Rides), Billy Lloyd-Foxe (Jake's rival at horse jumping), Fenella Maxwell (Rich, hot, rides) and Tory Maxwell (Debutant wife. Doesn't ride). They all have sex and fight and ride horses and wife swap and horse-swap and talk about horses and talk about riding horses and go to the Olympics to ride horses and , and, and . . You may not be one of the 20 M readers of the book but most likely you have seen the jacket cover, pictured. My first time at the Oakland Airport on my way to freshman year when being an adult could not come fast enough. Cooper, for her part, awarded an OBE for services to literature in the Queen's Birthday Honours list in 2004.
The serious side of the '80s was, of course, the tragedy of AIDS. Mine the first generation to believe that sex could mean a horrible, ghastly and lonely death.
"Wondering if she had a ginger bush, he felt the stirrings of lust. He'd tank her up at lunchtime and take her back to his mother's house."
--Rupert Campbell-Black in Jilly Cooper's "Riders," 1985
