By Saul Cooke-Black

THE original raunchy cover of Bisley-based Jilly Cooper's bonkbuster Riders will return when the next edition is published, the author revealed yesterday.

There was a furore earlier this year when a 'sanitised' picture of the man's hand on a jodphur clad woman's bottom showed it had moved to a less risque position.

But Jilly told an audience at Cheltenham Literature Festival that the book, first published in 1985, will have the familiar cover again next time around.

"Apparently the current picture was brought in because the supermarkets were shocked by the old cover and thought it demeaned women," said Jilly, who went on to bemoan the 'new Victorian era' we currently live in.

"That is what I was told - that the supermarkets objected.

"There was a cartoon about it by Peter Brooks which showed David Cameron with his hand on Angela Merkel's bottom. I asked Peter if I could buy his original and he said 'No you can't - David Cameron has already bought it!

"Anyway, the hand is coming back for the next reprint."

The book had the same cover through its thirty years of reprints - until earlier this year.

The tale of saucy goings-on in the Cotswolds showjumping showed a woman holding a riding crop, with a man's hand placed firmly on her derriere.

The new version which made the bottom smaller and the hand moved to the hip was condemned by Jane Warner - whose bottom it was in the picture.

The former Page 3 model, now 52, said the change was 'a damn shame' and showed there was 'nothing naughty but nice any more'.

At today's literature festival talk Jilly was asked why she thinks society has become less permissive than it was in the Sixties.

She replied "Shocking things go on these days in schools and in the house - lots of sex is going on there. But I think we are now in a Victorian age again and political correctness has really done for us.

"You can't even say anything now about red hair, can you?

"Everyone has to have 'issues' now. As soon as you get a hero now they have to go and see a therapist. In the old days no-one went to see therapists.

"There wouldn't be a Hamlet at all if he had gone to a therapist.

"I think it is less jolly and quite a frightening world now really."

Jilly said she is currently working on a new novel, Leading Sire, about the world of flat racing and stud farms but there is not much human sex in it because she is 'too old' for that now.

But she said there is plenty of horse sex and she described some of the foibles of stud stallions when they are required to perform.

She had thought about calling the book 'Willie Power' she revealed.

"Some stallions only like grey mares so they have to put white sheets over the chestnut ones to get them to cover them," she said.

"There is one stallion who is so shy that he can only perform if a 'practice mare' stands in the corner to watch him. He needs a voyeur!

"Another stallion called Juke Box Jury gets terribly homesick when he is taken to perform. The solution they have found for him might suit some men actually.

"He has a paddock which he shares with two old mares who look after him. He is taken away to do four covers and then he's taken back to his wives in the evenings."

Jilly was asked by her interviewer at the festival, Boris Johnson's magazine editor sister Rachel, what she thought of Jeremy Corbyn's election as Labour leader - and whether she found him sexy.

"David Cameron is terribly attractive," she said - although the Prime Minister may be less flattered by that compliment if he is reminded that Jilly also once wrote that she found John Prescott sexy.

"But Mr Corbyn? Well I hate beards I'm afraid. I am of the older generation. I think your libido is governed by your generation.

"I have never had a bearded hero, or even a stubbly one. Once when I was kissed for hours by a man with a beard I had a face like a garlic sausage!"

Jilly told Rachel "Your brother Boris is pretty attractive. He is very very funny and he is clever and he is merry and he can get quite stroppy, which is also attractive. But there are not many romantic men in politics."

Rachel suggested that Sam Goldsmith is 'very good looking' and Jilly agreed.

Asked why she thought the hard left had risen to the fore in the Labour party with Mr Corbyn's election she said she found it 'very extraordinary.'

She went on to slate the Conservatives, however, for putting fox hunting back on the agenda after winning this year's election.

"Everyone is so cross with them now," she said. "They bring back hunting straightaway. Hunting has been carrying on perfectly well without being brought back!"

Asked by Rachel Johnson why she has not yet been made a Dame, Jilly said she was happy with the OBE she received for services to literature - although her brother had 'laughed and laughed' about her work being described as literature, she said.

"I am very happy with my OBE. It's perfectly all right," she said when Rachel said it was 'ridiculous' she was not a Dame.

Finally, Jilly revealed that she is always losing her dog's lead on Cotswold walks - and has to use her BRA as a substitute!

"The only embarassing thing I do is to leave my dog's lead behind quite often.

"It is terribly embarassing because I have to go behind a hedge to take off my bra and put it around her neck to take her home.

"I meet people who say 'Oh, that's a nice lead!'"