Tackle!

by Jilly Cooper

Jilly Cooper's legendary hero returns!

Rupert Campbell-Black, undefeated race-horse owner and handsomest man in the world, is in the darkest of places. His adored wife, Taggie, is about to undergo chemotherapy, his beloved horse Love Rat has died, and now his daughter Bianca wants him to buy a languishing local football club - a sport Rupert knows nothing about - so she can return to Rutshire with her football star husband.

Rupert's first impressions of Searston Rovers are distinctly unfavourable. But swayed by Bianca and Taggie, soon Rupert has signed the deal. As Searston's new owner, he won't stand for anything less than victory in the Premier League, despite the odds being stacked against him. With help from the club's ravishing and adorable secretary, Tember West, Rupert sets out to mastermind Searston's rise to the top, starting with taking charge of the players - much to the fury of Searston's manager.

The rival football club and their corrupt dealings aren't going to make it easy for him either - and they have a history of foul play. Let the sabotage and scandal begin...

Genres: Fiction, Romance, Chick Lit, Humor, Contemporary, Womens Fiction, Sports

448 pages, ebook

First published November 9, 2023

About the author

Dame Jilly Cooper, OBE (born February 21, 1937) was an English author. She started her career as a journalist and wrote numerous works of non-fiction before writing several romance novels, the first of which appeared in 1975. She was most famous for writing the six blockbuster novels the Rutshire Chronicles.

Reviews

[CeeCee · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm trying very hard to say something positive about this 420-page drivel. Nope, I can't think of anything.
A cast of thousands as usual and numerous animals who are given almost as much airtime as the humans.
I'm not a huge lover of football, and this awful utter tosh did nothing to improve my chances of ever doing so.
Seriously! Do people in Jilly Cooper's world go around quoting Shakespeare and the Bible on a daily basis?
I'm not sure if she's actually ever attended matches, but I'm pretty certain the chants and songs from the terraces wouldn't include words like "ghastly bore" and "asunder."
Everyone in Jilly Cooper Land seems to have a nickname. Every character she introduces is "known as."
Every meal consumed is vast or enormous washed down with buckets of wine.
Just so clichéd and trite.
The original Campbell-Black novels were fun with great storylines. Not this, I'm afraid to say.
Time to hang up the paper and pen Jilly

[Kate Hyde · Rating 1 out of 5]

It pains me to write a bad review for Jilly who I adore more than many things and people. But this did not have her usual sparkle. I struggled through it out of loyalty more than anything else. I kind of got the impression she did too.

[Juliet Bookliterati · Rating 5 out of 5]

Back in the summer of 1986 I was on holiday with my parents, we were swapping books when my mum gave me Riders to read and thus started my love affair with Rupert Campbell Black. I was only fourteen at the time and now, thirty five years later I am still drawn to this charming character and all his antics, so as soon as Tackle! landed through my letterbox I just had to read it straight away. Tackle! starts immediately after the ending of her previous book Mount, after the death of his favourite horse and his wife, Taggie, facing chemotherapy for her cancer. Their daughter Bianca wants to come home to see her mother so persuades Rupert to buy a local football team so her boyfriend, Feral, can play for them. This is a whole new ball game (pardon the pun) for Rupert and opens up so many cliche’s and opprtunities for Jilly Cooper to play with the and they make this book such a fun and fabulous read.

I loved being back in Rutshire, with so many familiar characters and lots of new ones who felt like family by the end of the book. Rupert is now sixty years old, and in his personal life anyway he has seemed to have calmed down, especially after Taggie’s diagnosis. However, buying the football team Searston Rovers opens up for some wonderful new characters and some brilliant one liners from Rupert. There was a lot of fun and inuendo around the WAGs, a few cliche’s that made me smile like the power srtuggle among them and the affectations of trying to be posh. There were a couple of players I really took to my heart like Griffy who has a nightmare wife and the young and naive Wifie. Recurring characters include Dora Beleveon and her boyfriend Paris and Etta and Valent Edwards who is his business parter at Searston Rovers, and of course there a whole list of adorable animals.

I adore Jilly Cooper’s writing, she is a masterful story teller with her plotting to keep the reader engrossed, the most wonderful characters and a brilliant mix of drama, darkness, light and a lot of wit. Apparently this book was inspired after a lunch with ex Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, and I did wonder if any of the characters were loosly based on players he had worked with, and their wives. There was a lot of football terminology, but it was written in such a way that it didn’t bog me down, and as I previously mentioned a football club opens up all kinds of wonderful plot lines. There is plenty of drama, with business and personal rivalries, betrayals, affairs, broken hearts both romantic and profesional but there is also lots of fun, my favourite bring actor Paris Alverston teaching the football team how to dive and limp convincingly; if you watch football this will resonate with you.

I absolutely adored reading Tackle!, from its raunchy cover and title, to the wonderful characters, the brilliant one liners and exciting plot. It was raunchy, funny, sexy, and clever, all the things I love about Jilly Cooper’s novels, and I sincerely hope she has one more novel in her. This book was everything I expected and wanted, another romping success from the Queen of the bonk buster; I will forever be grateful to her for the gorgeous, charming love rat that is Rupert

[Frances Wheare · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rupert Campbell-Black is back! And he's been persuaded by his wife, Taggie, to buy a football club so that their adopted daughter, Bianca, and her boyfriend Feral (yes, really) can come back to the UK. He clubs in with his friend (and former goalie) Valent Edwards, and before long Searston (AKA the Gallopers, because it's Jilly Cooper and you can't NOT have a horsey reference on every other page) are rocketing up the leagues.

Oh man, this BOOK! Rarely have I read anything more frustrating. Every single character speaks in Basil Exposition, and nicknames are heavily used as a stand in for personality traits. The ludicrously named Tember West introduces the team in full, with nicknames, first to Rupert and then to Taggie. Another character talks says: 'I fort they was joking when they called and asked me to go straight to St George's Park, near Burton-on-Trent, training ground of the England football team.' Rupert's two stablehands Marketa and Louise (known as Lou-Easy because she's so free with her favours, we're told repeatedly) have a whole conversation designed to recap the plot of the last book: '... but when he learnt Taggie had cancer, he was so devastated, jetting straight home from the World Cup and hardly leaving her side since.' 'And Gav and Gala celebrated vinning the Vorld Cup, falling into bed, and now ve're all invited to their vedding.' Spoken like true friends... 

Oh, and the vorlds and vinnings and forts? That's because apparently we readers are incapable of imagining accents without - or should I say vithout - having it literally spelled out to us. All the footballers have ludicrous cockerny accents, except one posh boy who is coached in how to talk common: 'Footballers resent public-school boys, so for a start you've got to lose your tee-haitches. "Parfway", "I fink" instead of "I think", "fick" not "thick", and say "pass" to rhyme with "gas" ... Drop your "t"s, too - "blood's ficker than wa'er". Drop your aitches: you're 'Arry, and your mum's Lidy Stan'on-'Arcour'." And the accents are so inconsistent! One Argentinian player's dialogue is full of 'v's, whereas another South American pilot is all eeeeeeeeeees. 

There is absolutely no character development beyond the endlessly reiterated nicknames so it's hard to feel any investment in any of the relationships. Major plot points come up and then just... dwindle away - for example, Valent and Rupert have a big argument around a third of the way through the book, and Valent is basically never heard from again; Janey Lloyd-Fox is teased as a major antagonist but has only a couple of appearances.

It's wildly unrealistic - games are constantly going to 5+ goals, Searston Rovers are catapulted into the Premier League - nay, Champions League - within a matter of seasons, and Rupert seems to be single-handedly bankrolling the club rather than seeking sponsorship or commercial revenue. It's incredibly patronising in its approach to poor people, who are either salt-of-the-earth cleaners or greedy, drunken, thuggish bullies (as we are told about Wilfie's father every five pages). And! Nothing is said about the fact that Rupert CHEATED ON TAGGIE in the last books (which true fans like me will know to be completely uncanonical) but seems to be given a free pass just because he took Taggie to a couple of chemo sessions before cancer shaming her into going to a football match when she wasn't ready. FFS Rupert.

BUT! I had to give it two stars because buried underneath all this crap, there's a decent plotline waiting to get out. I can't believe I'm saying this about a 400+ page book but it felt too short to achieve everything it was trying to do. More than that, it felt like a first draft that needed a firm hand on the editing before being published.

[Kim Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it and didn’t want it to end. Took a couple of days off so I could just enjoy this.

[Sarah Louise · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not enjoy and did not finish… way too many characters and just couldn’t get to grips with how it was written… shame as I’ve also enjoyed her books in the past and had been looking forward to it. Hate not finishing a book…

[Gary Branson · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun romp. If this is the last of the series, it’s definitely going out on a high note. Very pleasurable.

[Debra Whisson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was so looking forward to this but gave up a short way in.

I was bored with the football match commentaries but the thing that really got me was the constant use of stupid nicknames. No one could just be ‘ Patrick’ or ‘Lisa’ instead they all had to have stupid nicknames , really really stupid nicknames . Some were rhyming ones , some meant to be amusing , the type of thing a 12 year old would find hilarious.

I’m so sorry Jilly Cooper but this was not a good book.

[Sammy Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Been reading Jilly Cooper since I was about 14 and Rupert Campbell Black has always been and remains one of my most very favourite charecters, so was over the moon to see Jilly had written another book about him, loved it

[Morgan Borthwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sex, football, champagne, pretending Conservatives are decent people and utter ridiculousness such as the one Labour politician being a rabid feminist with unshaven legs? - fuck it, Jilly Cooper is exactly what you expect on the cover and she delivers and I love her for it. Never change. Four stars of hilarity.

[Molly Coulthard · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have quite possibly never read anything as ridiculous in my life. 2 stars for making me laugh hysterically on multiple occasions

[Corisande Hopeful · Rating 3 out of 5]

Glitteris.

[Susan Devlin · Rating 1 out of 5]

In all my years of reading Jilly Cooper this book has got to be the cringiest yet. I get it's to be a bit of fun but no no no, the cheesy songs and everyone declaring their love to people after 5 mins. As a football fan, she made the whole sport like a bit of a laugh and didn't take it seriously, maybe because football is a working class sport so yeah Jilly don't be continuing with this storyline. Stick to horses and classical music.
I only finished this book after doing a yes or no wheel decider which unfortunately said yes.
Sad to say after this book I won't be reading anymore of her work.

[Diana Cheal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sadly, it’s just not the same as the originals

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy read, nice to catch up with the Rutshire crowd and lovely that Safety Car (my favourite horse from the series) has a part in this book. New characters appear, some horrid and some loveable.

[Samantha Cotton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this, a good old fashioned Jilly Cooper. Nice to have Rupert CB back in the lime light. Could have been a bit longer xx

[Lettice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ridiculous nonsense but really jolly entertaining ridiculous nonsense.

[Julia Saunders · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good grief! Where do I begin?! This is the first book that I've read by Jilly Cooper. As she's a well-respected Dame of the British Empire with a big back catalogue of novels, I thought I'd be in for a literary treat. Unfortunately, not.

The polite way to describe this book is 'thrown together'. The only exciting thing that happens is about three quarters of the way in (I won't say what, but it's OTT) and I think Jilly included this because she realised that she should start winding the book up and nothing much had happened thus far (other than the standard partner swapping, sex and bitching).

There are far too many characters, and they all have silly, childish nicknames (including the horses and dogs!). This made it very difficult to follow the plot as I had to keep flicking to the Cast of Characters at the front of the book to remind myself of who was who.

Everything is over the top - people laugh their heads off, swill down buckets of Bolly and drench themselves in perfume/aftershave. Far too many goals are scored in the football matches, and we're expected to believe that the players can spontaneously quote Yeats, Shakespeare, and have time to write biographies whilst playing in the Championship League. Jilly's even written in a horse that plays football and is partial to a drop of red wine!

If you like schoolboy humour, this is the book for you. We are told that the chairman of the rival football team had invented many hugely successful products in his time including Spot Kick which gets rid of acne, SpecFind - you press a button and your glasses tell you where they are and Poover which is a nozzle you place up your nether regions. Apparently, this is invaluable to geriatrics and has considerably reduced the number of disposable nappies thrown into the environment every year.

Oh dear.

I've given the book two stars - one out of respect for Dame Jilly and another because I laughed out loud (in disbelief) on several occasions!

[Marilena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun and fast! I had mistakenly assumed this 11th in Cooper’s romping chronicles was about rugby, from the title. Rugby seems a little more Rutshire’s style than football, but I actually love football more, and I have also enjoyed Cooper’s previous novels, so that was an absolutely perfect fit for me! Maybe Rugby could be the theme of the next novel Jilly, all those hulking, heroic players and nail biting Rugby World Cup finals?!

So this was a perfect 2 day read whilst on holiday in Cyprus. The reader is plunged straight into the feisty frolics, back stabbings and genital shenanigans of all the favourite star characters plus some delicious cameos from Jilly’s earlier books.

The novel like the others is not a literary masterpiece, but Cooper is the mistress of research, plot weaving and meticulous mirth. So you learn a hell of a lot about each of the subject areas that her books focus on. I have worked in football and recognised a lot of the behind the scenes incidents described. Readers are quickly drawn into each of the industries she describes (previously show jumping, polo, opera, horse racing, music etc) and can learn a lot about what goes on behind the glamour and the money. Frivolous on the surface, Tackle also tackles prejudices such as race, homophobia and problems of poverty and loneliness. Cooper sheds a light on the real human dramas that lurk behind the headlines in an often much criticised industry. She reminds us that beneath the surface people, famous or otherwise, are often hiding an emotional or physical pain that is not always visible or understood.

Tackle! has its usual plethora of dastardly devils and bullying bastards, but in Cooper’s world she usually ensures that they ultimately lose out to the devoted and darling ones, who have kindness and empathy.

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

absolute tosh

Oh Jilly, what a terrible book that bears your name. It lacks a credible story, the characters are just weak, and you’ve taken Rupert C-B, such a wonderful character, and made him as interesting as a wet lettuce.

Maybe you should attend a football match on the terraces and actually watch it, instead of via a corporate box drinking veggie cocktails.

Don’t waste money on this book, reread Rivals and Rivals, it’ll be a better use of your time.

[Bex · Rating 1 out of 5]

Struggled through this endlessly dull waffling. Dull plotlines, boring (and far too many) characters, badly handled subject matter. Read for the sake of nostalgia for an author I'd loved from my teenage years. Those first Rutshire Chronicles were brilliant, clever, inciteful and witty; this is none of those things.

[Sharon · Rating 1 out of 5]

My first book by the author, and I only read this because of watching Rivals, the TV series. OMG though, this has to be the biggest pile of 💩 I've ever read. Far too many characters, I had no idea who was who. It was 90% about football which wasn't interesting at all. Where was all the upper class romps which I thought these books were famous for? Not impressed at all!!

[S. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I mean, it's marginally better than Mount? Only because it didn't make me so viscerally angry.

It just wasn't fun to read, and fine, if Jilly Cooper wanted to tackle (har har har) things like cheating, attraction, and how do you keep a marriage fresh and engaging after 20 years, I get it. But she's not saying anything interesting or deep about it. She just threw it on the page and then never mentioned it again.

Anyway, the first two books are great, and I do want to make my way back to The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous, but Rupert and Taggie's story should have just been left alone after Book 2.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve always adored Jilly Cooper’s Rutshire novels, and when I heard that she had published a new instalment, I had to buy it straight away. My reading tastes have moved on over the years, but this book brought my love for the series flooding back. Fun, frivolous, happy, sad - Cooper will never again reach the dizzy heights of Riders and Rivals, but I loved this, nonetheless.

[Jen Banks · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book felt a lot shorter than Jilly’s other novels, and it lacked the weaving together of lots of different story threads. Still, it was an enjoyable read and it’s always good to have Rupert on the page 😀

[Victoria Crookes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this book , its a very long time since I read a Jilly Cooper book, I enjoy the revisit to the Cotswolds and Rupert Campbell black and Co, easy fun read a book that does not take itself too seriously

[Tash P · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable, easy read that I finished in two days. Is it as good as Jilly Cooper’s previous books? No but it does have a charm about it that keeps you reading it rather than giving up.

[Becky Wren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Took a while to get into. Funny enough I watched Rivals on Disney & then it made the reading more fun & I galloped on though it. Blimmin love the way Jilly writes.

[Felicity · Rating 4 out of 5]

I prefer the horse themed books, but this had all the necessary Jilly Cooper, some surprising plot twists, and was generally a fun read.

[Ella Cutter · Rating 5 out of 5]

please please please don’t let this be the last one