The Rutshire Chronicles is the name given to a series of six books by Jilly Cooper: Riders, Rivals, Polo, The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous, Appassionata, and Score! The stories tell tales of mainly upper-class families in numerous different sexually charged scenarios, often laced with adultery, illegimate children, scandal, horses, and sometimes, even death. They are linked by several recurring characters (chiefly Rupert Campbell-Black, although families recur from previous novels) and are set in the fictional English county of Rutshire. Rutshire should not be confused with the real English county of Rutland. The name 'Rutshire' is likely a pun on 'Rutland' and 'rut' (the annual state of sexual excitement in male deer) - the characters are often very indulgent with sex and have high libidos- mainly Rupert Campbell-Black. Some of these characters, mainly Rupert Campbell-Black and numerous characters associated with him, also occur in Cooper's novel Pandora, although it is not part of the series. The Campbell-Blacks, France-Lynches and other families from the Rutshire Chronicles also appear in Wicked! The tales are set in chronological order, however, they are perfectly readable as 'stand alone' novels.
