02/06/2026
Ever since Rivals returned Jilly Cooper’s world of country-house chaos to public life, the idea of the long Cotswolds lunch has felt newly relevant again.
Not the polished fantasy sold to weekenders, but the real thing: Bloody Marys before noon, flirtation over oysters, gossip that moves faster than the traffic through Burford, and the growing realisation that nobody has any serious intention of leaving before dark.
And if the Rivals cast ever escaped the television screen, these are exactly the pubs where you would expect to find them.
https://www.thecotswoldsgentleman.co.uk/news/the-cotswolds-pubs-where-the-rivals-set-would-really-lunch