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Why book clubs turn some women into despots - I was kicked out from my Jilly Cooper one after a furious foul-mouthed spat on WhatsApp By Flora Watkins Published: 01:45, 9 May 2024 | Updated: 01:45, 9 May 2024 e-mail View comments The Jilly Cooper Book Club was set up about a decade ago by two friends who’d had enough of book groups where someone would insist, ‘We really must do Dostoevsky this year.’ Members of the JCBC, in a co-founder’s words, just wanted to get together to ‘drink champagne and shriek about Jilly’. For some time, I stalked key members on Twitter (now X) before managing to wangle an invitation.
My first meeting was at a large townhouse in Clapham, south west London , to discuss bestseller Rivals. There was a lot of champagne and a gaggle of smart, entertaining women. One was wearing a Vivienne Westwood corset dress; another had flown in from California .
It was far more glamorous and fun than the usual cheap-wine-and-crisps affairs. Dame Jilly got to hear of it and invited us to lunch at her house in Gloucestershire, twice. We were featured in a women’s magazine.
We did all the blockbusters, Class and The Common Years. Dame Jilly got to hear of it and invited us to lunch at her house in Gloucestershire, twice. We were featured in a women’s magazine We went to each other’s 40th birthday parties and babies’ baptisms.
I asked a fellow member to be my daughter’s godmother. The JCBC WhatsApp group, meanwhile, was ‘a lovely thing to have in.
