Jilly Cooper to be honoured at this year's Irish Book Awards ceremony

Best-selling novelist Jilly Cooper to be honoured with the 'Bord Gáis Energy International Recognition Award' at this year's Irish Book Awards ceremony

Best-selling novelist Jilly Cooper will be honoured at this year’s Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards ceremony with the 2016 'Bord Gáis Energy International Recognition Award’.

She will be presented with the award on Wednesday, 16th November in the presence of a host of celebrated Irish authors representing the very best of Irish fiction, poetry, crime, sport, food, children’s and non-fiction genres.

Now in its third year, the 'Bord Gáis Energy International Recognition Award’ aims to honour international writers who, in the view of the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards board, have contributed substantially to the health and wealth of the Irish book-trade. Recipients will have a large corpus of popular work behind them; will have sales figures counted in millions; will have demonstrated staying power and longevity; and will have endeared themselves to Irish booksellers throughout their careers Past recipients of the award have been novelist Jeffrey Archer and writer Bill Bryson.

Accepting the award, Jilly Cooper, said:"This is the most heavenly compliment I've ever received. I've always adored Ireland and love so many Irish writers, I cannot believe the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards have singled me out for this honour. I love any excuse to come back to Dublin and the ceremony sounds like a fantastic party. Absolutely wonderful."

According to the Board of the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards:“Jilly Cooper is one of the most prolific and popular writers of our time. Her deliciously risqué tales have delighted Irish readers for over 30 years which is an astonishing achievement for any writer. She is an exceptional writer who has worked incredibly hard to stay at the top of her game and we are extremely happy to award Jilly the 2016 'Bord Gáis Energy International Recognition Award’.”

Jilly Cooper is a UK journalist, writer and media superstar. The author of more than 40 bestselling books, her novels have been translated into over 14 languages and sold in their millions. Born in London in 1937, Jilly began her career a journalist and wrote popular columns for the Mail on Sunday and The Sunday Times. This led to the publication of her first book, How to Stay Married, in 1969. It was quickly followed by a guide to working life, How to Survive from Nine to Five, in 1970. Her columns were successful enough to merit some of her journalism being collected into a single volume, Jolly Super, in 1971.

Her first big novel, Riders was published in 1985 and went straight to number one in the bestseller lists, as did Rivals published in 1988. Polo, which was published in 1991, was the highest selling hardback novel of the year. The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous, which was published in April of 1993 went straight into the number one position too and remained there for eight weeks. All of these books have sold well over 1 million copies each in their UK editions.

Other novels by Jilly Cooper include: Appasionata, Score!, Pandora and most recently Mount! which was published in September 2016.

Jilly was appointed OBE in 2004 for services to literature, and in 2009 was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Letters by the University of Gloucestershire for her contribution to literature and services to the County.

This is the eleventh year of the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards, which are dedicated to honouring Irish writers across the entire publishing spectrum. The 2016 shortlist will be revealed on Tuesday, 25th of October and the awards ceremony will be held on Wednesday, 16th November.

RTÉ Television will be broadcasting the highlights of the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards on RTÉ One on Saturday 19 November. This programme will showcase one of the biggest celebrations of Irish writing with many of Ireland’s most celebrated and loved authors in attendance.

For further information, please log on to the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards website bgeirishbookawards.ie