‘Beloved and inspirational’ author Joanna Trollope dies

Author Joanna Trollope has died aged 82, her family has said.

Trollope was one of the nation’s most widely read authors, having published more than 30 novels during a career that began in the 1970s.

Her novels include “aga sagas” The Rector’s Wife, Marrying The Mistress and Daughters-in-Law.

In a statement, Trollope’s daughters Antonia and Louise said: “Our beloved and inspirational mother Joanna Trollope has died peacefully at her Oxfordshire home, on December 11, aged 82.”

Her literary agent, James Gill, said: “It is with great sadness that we learn of the passing of Joanna Trollope, one of our most cherished, acclaimed and widely enjoyed novelists.

“Joanna will be mourned by her children, grandchildren, family, her countless friends and – of course – her readers.”

Trollope was best known for her novels set in rural middle England and centred around domestic life and relationships.

Her early historical romances were written under the pseudonym Caroline Harvey, before she turned to contemporary fiction.

With more than 40 novels to her name, her work tackled a range of topics from affairs, blended families and adoption, to parenting and marital breakdown.

Her most recent novel, Mum & Dad, published in 2020, was about three siblings, and their partners and children, who come together at their parent’s home in Gibraltar after their father has a stroke to figure out how they are going to look after their mother and keep the father’s wine business afloat.

In 1996, Trollope was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to literature and later made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2019.

She went on to chair a number of award ceremonies, including the Costa Book Awards, formerly Whitbread Prize, the BBC National Short Story Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction.

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