Product Description

At Bagley Hall, a notoriously wild, but increasingly academic, independent, crammed with the children of the famous, trouble is afoot. The ambitious and fatally attractive headmaster, Hengist Brett-Taylor, hatches a plan to share the facilities of his school with Larkminster Comprehensive - known locally, as 'Larks'. His reasons for doing so are purely financial, but he is encouraged by the opportunities the scheme gives him for frequent meetings with Janna Curtis, the dynamic new head of Larks, who has been drafted in to save, what is a fast-sinking school from closure. Janna is young, pretty, enthusiastic and vastly brave - and she will do anything to rescue her demoralized, run-down and cash-strapped school. Neither parents nor staff of either school, are too keen on this radical move, although some can see the possible financial advantages. For the students, however, it offers great opportunities to get up to even more mayhem than usual.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #183245 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 864 pages

Daily Mail
The perfect beach companion

Daily Express
A great summer read

The Observer
Simply enjoy the wicked pleasures Cooper does so well

Customer Reviews

Finally! A book about naughty teachers...Great fun!!!
Just finished reading this book and I really enjoyed it. I have a been a long time fan of Jilly Cooper's books (I started with Rivals when I was fifteen - a book I highly recommend). The main characters are very human - sometimes entirely likeable and at other times seriously misguided. I adore the witty, sarcastic characters with seriously racy lifestyles! What I like best about this novel is Cooper's ability to build a whole society and large cast of characters and hang them all together. If you are a fan of Cooper's earlier books you will enjoy Wicked!. If you have not read this authors previous books, stick with it - the story is well worth the effort.
On a personal note as someone working in the education field, I appreciated the very true to life teaching staff (both the good and bad!) in the book and in particular a teacher who was constantly being corrected on their grammar - its the bane of my existence as you can probably see from this review....

Fantastic-A Return to Form for Jilly!
I have just finished Wicked and feel like I have lost a close relative! The past few years books have been a bit average-Appassionata and Score e.t.c but Polo, Riders and Rivals are the best. For me this book was in the same league as them unputdownable, funny and well written-of course starring all the old favourites such as Rupert CB, and we get to see how Rannaldini's son has turned out, which is what made me pick it up to start with. I would reccommend it to any Jilly Cooper fan. Very exciting hope she does another like this.

Cooper back on form!
Now, I'll make no bones about it: I'll read any Jilly Cooper that comes my way. I'm like a junkie needing a fix. However, despite enjoying 'Score' and 'Pandora', they didn't have quite the effect that their predecessors did, particularly my all-time fave 'Polo'.
Good god, I wondered - am I now that junkie for whom no high is great enough?? But then I got a hit of 'Wicked', which I so enjoyed from start to finish that I actually felt bereft when I had finished racing through it. Welcome back Rupert - plus a great new heroine, a hunk in shorts, some seriously stroppy teens, some very very daft puns, and a whole raft of loveable supporting characters who feel like pals by the end of the book!
It's not as perfect as 'Polo', and Rupert's getting on a bit now (though still the most ravishing man in literature), and I'd still like to see her go back to the equine world, but 'Wicked' is definitely the best thing I've read for a long long time.
So I say - "Go Coop!" and bring on the next one!!!