London - Her novels are perhaps too racy to be considered as portraying a traditional view of romance.
But Jilly Cooper says modern women should be more willing to embrace the virtues of old-fashioned chivalry.
The best-selling author criticised women for being too quick to “put men down” with a constant bashing that has left them “brow-beaten”.
They often strip the opposite sex of their masculinity while they should be striving to encourage them to be real men, she said.
Cooper, 76, said she hated the idea of metrosexual men “wearing pinnies” on television, preferring males with a rugged Rock Hudson-style charm.
She was asked by The Chap magazine to describe what a female “chap” would be. In response she discussed how women should strive to enhance both sexes, making the most of the men in their lives.
Women no longer tell men how great they are and instead look for ways to put them down, she said.
“I think of my mother – who was very beautiful and very small – and she used to look up to men and say, ‘You are amazing, you are clever’.
“And I think that’s what’s gone wrong in the world for the male ego, when men are constantly being put down by women.
“My idea of a chappette is someone who enhances both sexes and is encouraging and just makes people happy. I just don’t like people being put down.”
Cooper –whose best-known novels include Riders and Rivals – also said that young women were too quick to shun marriage because they were more interested in casual sex than finding love.
She said it was a shame that modern couples rushed to have children out of wedlock. “Nobody seems to mention the word love any more. They just talk about having sex and women are having babies and not bothering to have husbands any more,” she said.
“I have been married nearly 52 years and I’ve always said a marriage is like building a cathedral, brick by brick by brick.
‘”’m very proud of being married for that long.”
Asked to define a real man, she said: “Oliver Reed was the most sexy man I’ve ever met.
“He just looked at you – it was pure smouldering.
“We love people like Rock Hudson – we had no idea they were gay. People like that – I love big, rugger-playing men.”
Cooper has never shied away from taking a traditional view of relationships. In 1969 she wrote How To Stay Married, which controversially advised women to turn a blind eye to a husband’s infidelity.
In the 1990s she discovered that her husband Leo had enjoyed a six-year affair.
Their marriage survived and Cooper now cares for Leo, 79, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease more than a decade ago, at their home in Gloucestershire. - Daily Mail