EFL legend Jon Parkin has revealed how his unlikely friendship with “bonkbuster” queen Jilly Cooper inspired her steamy football novel after visiting her home
He was the ultimate EFL journeyman known as “The Beast,” a man more accustomed to heavy tackles and post-match pints than high-society tea parties. But Jon Parkin has revealed the bizarre truth behind his friendship with the late “Queen of the Bonkbuster,” Dame Jilly Cooper.
The former Barnsley and Preston striker, 44, has opened up on how he became the secret muse for Dame Jilly’s final racy masterpiece, Tackle!. The unlikely duo struck up a bond while Parkin was playing for Forest Green Rovers, leading to an invitation to the author’s sprawling Gloucestershire mansion for a storytelling session.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Star, Parkin explained how the legendary author sought out his expertise to ensure her final work had the right amount of dressing room authenticity.
He said: “She used to come to some of the Forest Green games when I was there. She obviously wrote Riders, that saucy book about horse riding, and she wanted to do one about football. So she just asked me to go round to her house and tell her some of my stories.”
The 6ft 4in forward even suspects he’s been immortalised in the steamy pages of the book, which explores the scandalous side of the beautiful game.
Parkin said: “Somebody actually read me a bit of it the other day and I might actually be in it. I’m not named, but there’s every chance from the description that it could be me. That’s how I got to know her.”
In his new book, Thrills, Spills and Belly Laughs, Parkin goes into hilarious detail about their first proper meeting.
After being invited to her rambling house in Bisley, he found himself being served tuna and cucumber sandwiches while being grilled for gossip.
Parkin wrote: “I’d normally whip the cucumber off, but I didn’t want to be rude so ate them. She never once flinched as I regaled stories for the next three or four hours.”
The friendship even saw the frontman rubbing shoulders with the elite at Dame Jilly’s legendary summer parties. Writing in his book, Parkin recalls being introduced to a daytime TV icon.
He wrote: “Jilly caught Richard Madeley as he passed and said, ‘Richard, Richard – come and meet Jon! Jon is a beautiful man, and a professional footballer.'”
The encounter took a turn for the surreal when Madeley felt the need to explain his own job to the man who had seen him on his screen for two decades.
“He said, ‘Really? Me and my wife are in television.’ I was thinking, ‘No f***ing s***, Richard!’ I’d seen him for about 20 years on daytime TV, but nonetheless, he was letting me know in case I was thinking I recognised him from somewhere.”
Despite the powerful people in attendance, Parkin says Dame Jilly made him feel right at home. Reflecting on her passing in October last year at the age of 88, he added: “She was a lovely woman and as surreal as it sounds, a good friend who I was lucky enough to get to know.”
Jon Parkin: Thrills, Spills and Belly Laughs, published by Reach Sport, is on sale now.