Queen Camilla Pays Tribute to Dame Jilly Cooper in Cheltenham Racecard
Queen Camilla has paid tribute to the late author Dame Jilly Cooper in a personal message printed in the racecard for Friday's racing at Cheltenham. A racecard is the printed programme that lists each race and the horses running in it.
Royal Central reported the message. In it, the Queen said Dame Jilly would have been delighted by plans to honour her at Cheltenham Racecourse. One of those plans is to rename an area of the course The Rutshire Arms for the November Meeting, the racing festival held at the Gloucestershire track each November. Queen Camilla said she welcomed the decision.
Rutshire is the fictional English county that runs through many of Dame Jilly's novels, including her Rutshire Chronicles series. Her books often featured horses, hunting and the racing world, so a tribute at a racecourse suits the setting.
The Queen, who is the wife of King Charles III, also wished racegoers a wonderful day. She imagined Dame Jilly enjoying her afterlife in the company of handsome men and devoted dogs.
A dame is a woman who holds a damehood, an honour from the Crown given for service in fields such as the arts, public life or charity. Dame Jilly held that honour, which is why the Queen's message refers to her with the title. Honours of this kind are usually granted through lists drawn up by the government and approved by the monarch, but the Cheltenham plans are a separate, racecourse-led tribute.
The message appeared without fanfare in the printed programme, so racegoers who picked up a card on the day would have found it inside. It is a short note, but it links two very different worlds: the country-house novels of a bestselling writer and a November jump-racing meeting on a Cotswold-edged course.
For readers new to Dame Jilly's work, her novels are known for lively, large casts, romance, animals and the social life of the English countryside. Her death was announced before this tribute, and the Queen's message is one of several ways the course is marking her work.
