Cooper’s Jump!, pulls to the front of the reader’s mind the likes of Francis Drake and Julian Fellowes, as she creates a world revolving around equine activity and class-climbers.
The crux of Jump!, is the trials faced by a recently widowed granny, whose children selfishly enlist her to take care of their spoiled children, and force her to give up her house and live a life of misery with them. It is impossible to dislike our shy, rosy-faced granny, particularly when she discovers an abandoned filly who she nurses back to health.
The tale proceeds to take place around the courses at Cheltenham and Aintree; the nouveaux riche who stalk it, and the upper class who run it. It is these sub-groups who supply the frisky business, what with hastily ripping off jodhpurs and lovers named ‘Valant’.
Jump! is a good read for the characters alone, yet lacks where Coopers peers succeed in plot.
