Rivals (novel)

Set in 1986,^[1] the novel is based around the competition for an independent television franchise in the Cotswolds in England. The incumbent franchisee is a company called Corinium Television, led by executive Tony Baddingham. The company produces regional television and programmes that it sells to other franchises, both in England and around the world. Baddingham, as part of efforts to keep the franchise, employs an American executive called Cameron Cooke who arrives at Corinium and quickly criticises how many of its programmes are produced, but her inventiveness improves many of them. As part of further efforts to retain the franchise, and impress a fictionalised version of the Independent Broadcasting Authority, Baddingham also employs Declan O'Hara who is an Irish primetime television interviewer. O'Hara has a reputation for broadcasting excellence and is induced to move to the area by Baddingham's offer of a high salary. O'Hara brings his wife, Maud, and two daughters Taggie and Caitlin with him; he also has a son Patrick. They move to a former monastery close to Rupert Campbell-Black's country house Penscombe.

The family gets to know Campbell-Black, although Declan O'Hara is initially hostile to him, egged on by Baddingham for whom Campbell-Black is his nemesis. Whilst work at Corinium begins well for O'Hara, he soon realises Baddingham is a bully and resigns. Along with Campbell-Black, O'Hara forms a television production company to try to win the franchise away from Corinium and Baddingham. Called Venturer, the board includes O'Hara, as well as Campbell-Black and other characters, including Freddie Jones, a working-class electronics millionaire, and many others. They also recruit members of Corinium's present staff and Rupert's best friend Billy Lloyd-Foxe, a former showjumper but now BBC commentator, to join them should they be successful. As a coup de grace, Rupert seduces Cameron Cooke and ultimately persuades her to also join Venturer. Campaigning for the franchise coincides with Campbell-Black's campaign to be re-elected as a Conservative MP, and he tours the district with Taggie who is getting people to sign a petition of support for Venturer. They fall in love. Nevertheless, there is a spy in the Venturer team, who turns out to be Declan's wife Maud, who was seduced by Baddingham. The novel ends with Venturer winning the franchise, Declan and Maud reconciling, Rupert and Taggie getting married, and Cameron Cooke - whose relationship with Rupert ended - getting together with Declan's son Patrick.

The novel was noted for its emphasis on sex, in keeping with the reputation for raunchiness that Cooper established with her previous novel Riders.^[2][3] Cooper became associated with "sweaty horseflesh, adulterous bonking and beautiful people with posh voices."^[4][5] In Rivals, Rupert Campbell-Black's development from a villain into a hero worthy of a happily-ever-after is linked to his development of more sexual skill, especially through oral sex.^[6] There is a common perception that girls at some British boarding schools share copies of the novel to learn about sex.^[7]

Rivals is the second novel in the Rutshire Chronicles series.^[8] To write the novel, Cooper worked 90 hours a week for 9 months in order to finish it.^[9] Cooper's publisher was initially sceptical about a novel centred on television, calling it a "boring subject".^[10]

The novel was published by Bantam Press, and first released in June 1988 as a 529-page hardcover edition.^[11][12] Half of the first print run was distributed through book clubs.^[11] Cooper's royalty rate was ten percent, rising to twelve and a half percent after a sales milestone.^[11] It was published as Players in the US.^[13] As of 2024, the novel had never been out of print.^[14]

The first paperback edition was published by Corgi in April 1989,^[15] featuring a major revision to the text: the character Anthony Bullingham was renamed to Baddingham.^[16] Upon hardback publication, Cooper was accused of libel by William Bullingham, a Conservative party councillor from Cheltenham who had shares in the Cotswold Cable TV Company.^[17][18] The case was based on similarities between William Bullingham and the character Anthony Bullingham.^[17] Cooper agreed to change the surname of the character to Baddingham as a result of the libel case.^[19] Cooper described the episode as "embarrassing".^[20]

Rivals was an immediate financial success for Cooper, and a bestseller.^[11] It debuted at #2 on the Sunday Times bestseller list for hardback fiction on June 12, 1988.^[21] It spent 23 weeks on the list, through to January 22, 1989.^[22][23] The paperback edition debuted at #1 on the Sunday Times list, April 16, 1989.^[15] It spent 19 weeks on the list, through to September 10.^[24][25] Miranda Seymour in the Sunday Times identified Rivals as a "beach book": "a well-merchandised product, written to a formula, sold for the kind of money that attracts instant publicity, and promoted with all the razzamatazz of a new cosmetic product."^[26] The term "bonkbuster" is now used to capture both its blockbuster sales and its sex-heavy plot.^[5]

Andrew Sinclair, reviewing the novel in The Times, described Cooper's writing "as fast as her tongue" and praised its "pace and verve".^[27] The Northampton Chronicle and Echo reviewed the novel saying it was "as easily digestible as a Jeffrey Archer, as saucy as a Jackie Collins, and with as much spice as a Dick Francis".^[28] The Guardian described how the novel portrayed a Gloucestershire where "VIPs ... have replaced sheep" and focussed on its television franchise plot.^[29] Mary Kenny, writing in The Sunday Telegraph, praised Cooper's "lyrical [writing] about the Cotswold countryside", and also noted that Cooper excelled at writing about food and drink (the latter in particular).^[12] Kenny described how out of the hardback publication's 529 pages, 148 of them describe people getting drunk.^[12]

In North America, a review in Canada's Telegraph-Journal by Barbara Whalen was less complimentary, describing the "smutty, tastless storyline" as over-written and requiring further editing, and criticising the characters as unbelievable.^[30] Geoffrey Molyneux, writing in The Province, questioned how popular the book would be in North America but described it as "a slice of Mrs Thatcher's Britain".^[31] He was also positive about its portrayal of innovation in the British television industry.^[31] Jeff Jarvis in the New York Times Book Review described the novel as "Brittwittery", a negative phrase that represented what Jarvis saw as trashiness with a particularly British quality.^[13] Jarvis also criticised the sex scenes, including a scene with a brief justification of violence against women, and Cooper's one-liners.^[13]