Rivals may scoff, but Rishi is right about Jilly

ALL those sneering over Rishi Sunak’s admittance that he likes to curl up with a Jilly Cooper novel of an evening in order to escape the rigours of high office, have clearly never read one of her books.

Her books are joyous, gripping, and yes, a teensy bit raunchy. But she’s also – and if you don’t believe me go and pick up one of her early, sometimes forgotten stand-alone novellas such as Octavia, Prudence or Imogen – a brilliant storyteller. While some of the attitudes towards women and society in her older books may seem outdated today, the stories themselves stand the test of time.

Whether Sunak will go on to do the same thing, mind you, remains to be seen…