Tackle!
{{Short description|Novel by Jilly Cooper}}{{Infobox novel
| author = Jilly Cooper
| pub_date = 2023
| language = English
| country = United Kingdom
| genre = Romance, bonkbuster
| published = 2023 (Transworld)
| publisher = Transworld
| series = Rutshire Chronicles
| preceded_by = Mount!
| set_in = 21st-century England
| website = https://www.jillycooper.co.uk/books/tackle/
| italic title = yes
| image = Tackle! by Jilly Cooper.jpg
}}
Tackle! is a 2023 novel by English author Jilly Cooper. It is the eleventh novel in the Rutshire Chronicles series. It sees the return of Rupert Campbell-Black, this time as the owner of a low division football club, whose fortunes he reverses. The idea for the novel came after Cooper had lunch with football manager Alex Ferguson. The team in the book, Searston Rovers, is based on Cooper's local side Forest Green Rovers. Despite some incredulity at the plot, Rachel Cooke described Cooper's style as "infectiously joyful and funny about her particular brand of very English writing: it comes with a kindliness and a silliness that is beginning to feel to me quite painfully nostalgic". Cleo Watson, writing in The Telegraph, compared the novel to Welcome to Wrexham and Ted Lasso. It was named by The Week as one of its Top Ten Books of 2023.
Plot
Taggie Campbell-Black has breast cancer, her husband is not coping well, and her daughter Bianca wants a reason to come home to look after her mother. Bianca is in a relationship with footballer Feral Jackson, and so persuades her father Rupert Campbell-Black to takeover a low division football team and sign Feral to it. The novel then follows the rise the side, Searston Rovers, who benefit from Rupert's involvement and eventually end up playing at Wembley.
Background
Published in 2023, the novel is the eleventh title in the Rutshire Chronicles series by Jilly Cooper.{{Cite web |title=Tackle! by Jilly Cooper |url=https://www.jillycooper.co.uk/books/tackle/ |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=The official website of Dame Jilly Cooper |language=en-GB}} Set in the world of football,{{Cite web |last=Alexander |first=Martha |date=2023-11-06 |title=Jilly Cooper's fiction: Sexist and silly, or pure genius? |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/jilly-cooper-tackle-new-book-release-date-b1118478.html |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=The Standard |language=en}}{{Cite news |last=Williams |first=Zoe |date=2023-11-08 |title=Bonk hard and start a business! 10 life lessons I learned from Jilly Cooper |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/nov/08/bonk-hard-and-start-a-business-10-life-lessons-i-learned-from-jilly-cooper |access-date=2025-04-22 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite web |title=Jilly Cooper's news book Tackle! is about football {{!}} Radio Times |url=https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/jilly-cooper-to-penetrate-the-world-of-football-in-her-steamy-new-book-tackle/ |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=www.radiotimes.com |language=en-GB}} as part of her research for the book Cooper spoke with football managers Tony Adams, Kenny Dalglish and Alex Ferguson.{{Cite news |last=Cooke |first=Rachel |date=2023-11-12 |title=Tackle! review – Jilly Cooper takes on the beautiful game |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/nov/12/tackle-jilly-cooper-review-football |access-date=2025-04-22 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} The idea for the novel apparently came after Cooper had lunch with Ferguson years previously.{{Cite web |last=Cockerell |first=Claudia |date=2023-11-09 |title=Footballers 'deserve every penny' says Jilly Cooper after writing football romp |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/londoners-diary/jilly-cooper-tackle-book-launch-alex-ferguson-football-b1119265.html |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=The Standard |language=en}} Cooper was also given a tour of the St George's Park National Football Centre by Howard Wilkinson; he also introduced her to Gareth Southgate. The team in the book, Searston Rovers, is based on Cooper's local side Forest Green Rovers.{{Cite web |last=Thorp |first=Clare |title=From Riders to Tackle! – how Britain loves Jilly Cooper's raunchy novels |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/culture/article/20231109-riders-to-tackle-the-raunchy-books-britain-loves |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=www.bbc.com |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Silver |first=Madeleine |date=2024-04-20 |title='Bonkbuster' queen Jilly Cooper to swap horses for football - Horse & Hound |url=https://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/bonkbuster-queen-jilly-cooper-swap-horses-football-591470 |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=Horse & Hound|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240420165443/https://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/bonkbuster-queen-jilly-cooper-swap-horses-football-591470 |archive-date=20 April 2024 }} She travelled with the team to Wembley in 2016, where they were beaten by Grimsby Town.{{Cite web |last=Furness |first=Hannah |date=2023-03-17 |title=Jilly Cooper abandons show jumping to tackle football in next book |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/30/jilly-cooper-abandons-show-jumping-to-tackle-football-in-next-bo/ |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=The Daily Telegraph|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230317213734/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/30/jilly-cooper-abandons-show-jumping-to-tackle-football-in-next-bo/ |archive-date=17 March 2023 }}
According to Rachel Cooke, writing in The Guardian, publication was delayed by both sensitivity readers, and by an editor who wanted there to be an increase in sex in the book. These rewrites took her 15 months to complete.{{Cite web |last=Glancy |first=Josh |date=2024-07-28 |title=Jilly Cooper: 'Upper classes are unbelievable, they just love sex' |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/jilly-cooper-the-upper-classes-just-have-to-screw-mnc9g2qm2 |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=The Times|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240728233658/https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/jilly-cooper-the-upper-classes-just-have-to-screw-mnc9g2qm2 |archive-date=28 July 2024 }}
Characters
- Rupert Campbell-Black
- Taggie Campbell-Black
- Feral Jackson
- Dora Belvedon
Reception
The book launch was held at Hatchard's in London in November 2023.{{Cite web |last=Wood |first=Heloise |date=2023-11-09 |title=The Bookseller - News - Trade turns out for Cooper's 'Tackle!' |url=https://www.thebookseller.com/news/trade-turns-out-for-coopers-tackle |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=The Bookseller|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231109095502/https://www.thebookseller.com/news/trade-turns-out-for-coopers-tackle |archive-date=9 November 2023 }} Upon publication of the book Gareth Southgate sent her a signed England national football team shirt by way of congratulations. Rachel Cooke, reviewing the novel in The Guardian, described a paucity of sex scenes compared to Cooper's earlier novels, and those that were there she described as "lacklustre". Clare Thorp, reviewing the book for BBC Culture, described the sex as "tamer" than previous works. Cooper herself had stated that she had found writing them more difficult as she grew older.{{Cite web |date=2023-10-27 |title=Jilly Cooper, 86, says she's 'forgotten' how to write sex scenes |url=https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/books/news/jilly-cooper-sex-scenes-tackle-b2436956.html |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=The Independent |language=en}} Moira Redmond, reviewing the novel in The i Paper described the sex scenes as "sweetly raunchy" and praised Cooper for her invention of "Glittoris" - a liquid painted on a clitoris that tasted sweet to those that (find and) taste it.{{Cite web |last=Redmond |first=Moira |date=2023-11-07 |title=Jilly Cooper is the only modern icon who can get away with ignoring #MeToo |url=https://inews.co.uk/culture/tackle-by-jilly-cooper-review-author-ignoring-metoo-2736590 |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=The i Paper |language=en-US}} Additionally, Hilary Rose, writing in The Times was charmed by the puns that Cooper uses to describe sex.{{Cite web |last=Rose |first=Hilary |date=2024-09-15 |title=Tackle! by Jilly Cooper review — a romp in the sweaty world of football |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/tackle-by-jilly-cooper-review-a-romp-in-the-sweaty-world-of-football-887cbvwwf |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=The Times|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240915095106/https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/tackle-by-jilly-cooper-review-a-romp-in-the-sweaty-world-of-football-887cbvwwf |archive-date=15 September 2024 }} She also praised the "restraint" shown in Cooper's treatment of Taggie Campbell-Black's breast cancer treatment.
Redmond also stated that although there was an audience of older women waiting to read the bonkbuster, it might also appeal to a younger generation of readers. Despite these positives and what she terms as Cooper's "dashing style, joie de vivre and glittering view of the world", Redmond was critical of Cooper's portrayal of feminists and their depiction in her novels, and some fatphobic writing. Despite some incredulity at the plot, Cooke described Cooper's style as "infectiously joyful and funny about her particular brand of very English writing: it comes with a kindliness and a silliness that is beginning to feel to me quite painfully nostalgic". Cleo Watson, writing in The Telegraph, compared the novel to Welcome to Wrexham and Ted Lasso.{{Cite web |last=Watson |first=Cleo |date=2024-04-27 |title=Tackle! by Jilly Cooper, review: balls, 'babes', brilliance |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/review-jilly-cooper-tackle/ |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=The Daily Telegraph|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240427063930/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/review-jilly-cooper-tackle/ |archive-date=27 April 2024 }} She also said she felt "bereft" when she finished reading it.
Recognition
Tackle! was named by The Week as one of its Top Ten Books of 2023.{{Cite web |last=updated |first=The Week Staff last |date=2023-02-10 |title=The best novels of 2023 |url=https://theweek.com/arts-life/culture/books/959621/book-reviews-best-novels-2023 |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=The Week |language=en}}