Dame Joanna Lumley and Queen Camilla among guests at memorial for author Jilly Cooper

Queen Camilla, Dame Joanna Lumley and David Tennant were among the guests attending a memorial service for the late novelist Dame Jilly Cooper, at London's Southwark Cathedral.

Dame Jilly, known for her best-selling romps including Rivals and Riders, died unexpectedly aged 88 in October 2025 after sustaining injuries from a fall.

Dame Joanna praised her as "an extraordinary woman" and said of Friday's service: "It was very touching, sometimes very funny, just sometimes very moving and very beautiful."

Others attending included Dame Jilly's agent Felicity Blunt and her husband, actor Stanley Tucci, as well as Rupert Everett, Clare Balding, ex-footballer Tony Adams and comedian Rory Bremner.

The Queen was welcomed by the Dean of Southwark, the Very Rev Mark Oakley outside the cathedral and stopped to look at a picture of the author, who loved animals, with a dog displayed on an easel by the door.

At the service, the dean said: "Dame Jilly Cooper was a person with a champagne soul, of good vintage and sparkling for all its worth."

"Full of light, she lit up places and people, a collage of rare humane qualities, and a friend who brought comfort, compassion, and excitement," he added.

Rivals stars in attendance included Victoria Smurfit, Alex Hassell, Aidan Turner, Danny Dyer and Katherine Parkinson.

Afterwards, Dyer described the service as "wonderful".

Dame Jilly's most successful works were The Rutshire Chronicles, beginning with Riders in 1985, which portrayed the scandals, sex lives and social circles of the wealthy horse-loving country set.

Follow-up Rivals was published in 1988 and reached a new generation of fans in 2024 when it was adapted into a hit Disney+ TV series. Camilla visited the cast and crew last month during filming for the show's second season.

According to the order of service, Rivals stars Alex Hassell and Bella Maclean read an extract from the novel, while Dame Joanna read an extract from diary anthology the Common Years.

Dame Jilly sold more than 11 million books in the UK alone.

Blunt, who previously described the author as "emotionally intelligent, fantastically generous, sharply observant and utter fun", carried a tote bag with "I love Jilly Cooper" on it.

Broadcaster Gyles Brandreth also paid tribute to the "fabulous" and "amazing" Dame Jilly, summing her up in one word: "fun, fun, fun, fun".

"Champagne is being popped in heaven today and I'm honoured and delighted to be here amongst so many celebrating an amazing writer," he added.

Smurfit said she was "extremely grateful and unbelievably lucky" to have known Dame Jilly for nearly 40 years.

"We will keep her memory and stories alive for as long as we can," she added.

Actor Sir Derek Jacobi said Dame Jilly was a "glorious lady" and that it meant a "great deal to be here, just to say a final 'hello'".

Other guests at the service include Queen Camilla's former husband Andrew Parker Bowles and their children, Tom Parker Bowles and Laura Lopes, broadcaster Clare Balding and presenter Richard Madeley.

Dame Jilly was made a CBE for services to literature and charity in 2018, and made a dame in 2024, later describing receiving the honour from the King as "orgasmic".

She is survived by her two children, Felix and Emily, who previously described her "the shining light in all of our lives".

"We are so proud of everything she achieved in her life and can't begin to imagine life without her infectious smile and laughter all around us," they said in a statement in October.