Jump! (novel)

Jump! is a 2010 novel by English author Jilly Cooper. It is the ninth novel in the Rutshire Chronicles series. The plot follows the racing career of a one-eyed horse called Mrs Wilkinson, who is rescued by widow and grandmother Etta Bancroft. She forms a syndicate to race Mrs Wilkinson with others from her village and the novel follows them to major National Hunt races at Aintree, Cheltenham and the Grand National. Despite extensive research, Cooper struggled to write the novel, due to her husband's and her own ill health. The book received positive reviews, with some reservations. Reviewer Olivia Laing praised Cooper's "near-magical ability to conjure up a world", but criticised the underage, non-consensual sex as well as some of the novel's multiple side plots.