Rivals cover art

Rivals

Rutshire Chronicles, Book 2

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Rivals

By: Jilly Cooper
Narrated by: Georgia Tennant
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£5.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends on 5 July 2026 at 11:59 BST. Cancel monthly.

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A brand-new recording narrated by Georgia Tennant, star of Doctor Who: Dreamland and Staged.
Who will take the Cotswold Crown?

Into the cut-throat world of Corinium television comes Declan O'Hara, a mega-star of great glamour and integrity with a radiant feckless wife, a handsome son and two ravishing teenage daughters. Living rather too closely across the valley is Rupert Campbell-Black, divorced and as dissolute as ever, and now the Tory Minister for Sport.

Declan needs only a few days at Corinium to realise that the Managing Director, Lord Baddingham, is a crook who has recruited him merely to help retain the franchise for Corinium. Baddingham has also enticed Cameron Cook, a gorgeous but domineering woman executive, to produce Declan's programme. Declan and Cameron detest each other, provoking a storm of controversy into which Rupert plunges with his usual abandon.

As a rival group emerges to pitch for the franchise, reputations ripen and decline, true love blossoms and burns, marriages are made and shattered, and sex raises its (delicious) head at almost every throw as, in bed and boardroom, the race is on to capture the Cotswold Crown.


'Jilly Cooper is the very best ... elegant, glamourous, wonderful fun' DAILY MAIL
'I couldn't put it down' SUNDAY EXPRESS
'A combination of drama, sex, and good social comedy ... unputdownable' THE SUNDAY TIMES©1988 Jilly Cooper (P)2024 W F Howes Ltd Contemporary Women's Fiction Marriage
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I’ve listened to a couple of these books now and Georgia Tennants is by far the best. I hope she does more of them.

First class narration

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A romp of a book, narrated fantastically by Georgia Tennant. Her voices really brought it to life. I hope she re-narrates the rest of the Rutshire Chronicles too!

Escapism at its finest

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Written like a soap opera, rivals is funny, and like a catchy song you just want to read more of. Love the characters and made for a great listen.

Love the drama

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I’ve been enjoying listening to the books I’ve read numerous times but found that the ones narrated by Sherry Baines were really hard to listen to - the voice was too flat and robotic so I was thrilled to see some are being re recorded! I was able to enjoy Rivals again - the early books are great stories (Riders the best) so it’s great to revisit them and I see that Polo has been re recorded so I’ll be listening to that next. Shout out to Gerri Halligan the lady who narrates Riders as she did great job too.

Great to revisit an old favourite

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I love the trail through modern history that takes me back to being a young adult in the 1980s. Despite its dated aspects, ‘Rivals’ is full of great characters and plots. It’s really well written; Jilly Cooper at her best.
As for the performance, positive aspects include clear diction and a convincing use of different voices and accents. However, the frequent mispronunciations were very annoying, showing the reader’s and director’s lack of general knowledge. We’re used to spotting this with AI voices, but it’s disappointing to find it here. Overall, though, a well-presented favourite story.

My favourite novel ever since Jilly wrote it. Often revisited.

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