Set against the glorious Cotswold countryside and the playgrounds of the world, Jilly Cooper's Rutshire chronicles, 'Riders', 'Rivals', 'Polo', 'The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous', 'Apassionata' and 'Score!', offer an intoxicating blend of skulduggery, swooning romance, sexual adventure and hilarious high jinks.
'Riders', the first and steamiest in the series, takes the lid off international show jumping, a sport where the brave horses are almost human, but the humans behave like animals.
The brooding hero, gypsy Jake Lovell, under whose magic hands the most difficult horse or woman becomes biddable, is drive to the top by his loathing of the beautiful bounder and darling of the show ring, Rupert Campbell-Black. Having filched each other's horses, and fought and fornicated their way around the capitals of Europe, the feud between the two men finally erupts with devastating consequence at the Los Angeles Olympics.
