Novelicious.com | The Women's Fiction Blog for Readers and Writers

The Book That Changed My Life: Jill Mansell chooses Riders by Jilly Cooper

Jill Mansell is the bestselling author of over 20 novels. Her new book, The Unpredictable Consequences of Love, is out on the 30th January. She tells Novelicious how Riders influenced her writing when she was starting out. 

I honestly don't think I could describe how much I loved Riders, by Jilly Cooper, when it first came out. I'd enjoyed her earlier writings, but this was a revelation, a whole new level of fabulousness. Contemporary fiction with glamour, drama, sizzling sexual shenanigans and humour – well, I hadn't realised such a genre existed before. I was in love with the style of writing, the glorious Cotswold settings, the irresistible characters. It's no exaggeration to say it felt like coming home.

I was working at the time in a neurological hospital, longing to change my life. Reading an article in a magazine about women who had changed their lives by becoming best-selling authors, I decided that this was something I needed to try for myself. Having attempted a few Mills & Boons, I kept getting told I was putting too much humour into them. Eventually I decided to write the kind of book I would love to read, which was basically Riders, minus all the horsey bits because I knew nothing about horses. So that's what I did, and the end result was Fast Friends.

My Writing Room - Jill Mansell

We're feeling very lucky indeed that that fabulous Jill Mansell is showing us her writing room this week. Jill has written an astounding twenty-three novels, among them some of my very favourites. Jill Mansell's latest book is A Walk in the Park.

My Writing Room by Jill Mansell

I had an office once and hated the feeling of being shut away from everything that was going on in the rest of the house. Being in there felt like being punished, so it's just a junk room now, and I work downstairs in the living room instead. I sit on the sofa with my feet up on the coffee table and write all my books by hand with a fountain pen. The TV is always on - I use it as background noise, undemanding company. Listening to the radio would be impossible, far too distracting, but TV is fine. Also, you never know when ideas for the novels might suddenly turn up.

That's my bear over there in the fireplace - I fell in love with him in a shop a couple of years ago and my other half bought him for me for my birthday. If our daughter is home from university she'll sit at the dining table, type up my work for me and gleefully point out any mistakes I might have made along the way. I generally have my beautiful notebooks out, containing plot ideas and possible names for characters. I'm convinced that the more fabulous the notebook, the better the resulting novel will be - the one I'm currently using has a flocked cover, gilded pages and is by Christian Lacroix. (I know. Get me!)