Joanna Trollope CBE ( / ˈ t r ɒ l ə p/ TROL-əp; born 9 December 1943) is an English writer. She has also written under the pseudonym of Caroline Harvey. Her novel Parson Harding's Daughter won in 1980 the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association. [1] Biography [ edit ] Early life [ edit ] I can't say I enjoyed this book at all, but it was very intriguing (being the daughter of a minister!), and the writing was such that I couldn't put it down. Born in her grandfather’s rectory in the Cotswold village of Minchinhampton in December 1943, Joanna says: ‘Being born somewhere with a strong local sense, like the Cotswolds, gave me not just a sense of rootedness, but a capacity to value landscape and weather and the accessible richness of community life.” a b Das, Lina (13 May 2017). "Joanna Trollope: My marriage breakdown was a relief – I could tell people I was in turmoil". The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 23 March 2019. Over the past twenty years, Anna has become a mother figure to so many people. She has made sure suppers were organized at the deanery; baked cakes for the Brownies' annual 'Easter Cake Bake'; delivered parish magazines; washed and ironed her husband's surplices for every Sunday service - although perhaps not as neatly as she should - or so some of Peter's more ardently faithful parishioners like to whisper. Anna has always been frugal with the family's funds: she has grown her own vegetables and clothed herself and her three children in left-over items bought from various jumble sales. She has always done these duties without complaint or indeed, any expectation of praise from others.

Marrying the Mistress: ″With its sharp eye, light tone and sly, witty pace, Joanna Trollope's ninth novel delivers all the ingredients of romantic comedy, yet ends with a subtle, dark twist.″ [18] A Spanish Lover: In The New York Times Betsy Groban wrote, ″Her story is filled with lively, astute and always affectionate insights into the abiding issues of marriage, motherhood and materialism, not to mention the destructive power of envy and the importance of living one's own life. ″ [17] These questions are not new. Women's experiences within narrowly heterosexual, traditional "marriage" have often been examined with a growing consciousness that there is asymmetry built into the institution that favours men. This book looks at that in the context of the man also being trapped in a similarly commited and taken-for-granted relationship to "the church" as an overworked and impoverished clergyman in a rural community. Anna as "the rector's wife" craves to have real work, independence, choice, relationships based on herself not her role or gender and any sense that she is a human not an object in someone else's vocation. Peter is depressed but doesn't want to talk about it- at varying times he projects, blames, retreats and simply pontificates. They married for "love" but it has been a long and hard road. On 14 May 1966, [3] Trollope married a city banker, David Roger William Potter; the couple had two daughters, Antonia and Louise, divorcing in 1983. [2] [10] In 1985, she married the television dramatist Ian Curteis and became a stepmother of his two sons; she and Curteis divorced in 2001. After her second divorce, Trollope moved to West London. [6] She is a grandmother. [4] [21]

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a b c d e f g Allardice, Lisa (11 February 2006). "Survival tactics". The Guardian . Retrieved 24 March 2019. Joanna Trollope was born on 9 December 1943 in her grandfather's rectory in Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire, England, daughter of Rosemary Hodson and Arthur George Cecil Trollope. She is the eldest of three siblings. She is a fifth-generation niece of the Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope and is a cousin of the writer and broadcaster James Trollope. She was educated at Reigate County School for Girls followed by St Hugh's College, Oxford. On 14 May 1966, she married the banker David Roger William Potter, they had two daughters, Antonia and Louise, and on 1983 they divorced. In 1985, she remarried to the television dramatist Ian Curteis, and became the stepmother of two stepsons; they divorced in 2001. Today, she is a grandmother and lives on her own in London. I thought that the resolution of the story with a car crash killing Peter made sense. I could see that the gossip conveyed by Ella might have been the last straw for him. Not that he actively courted suicide, but when the opportunity presented itself, he decided to act.

a b Taylor, Jeremy (7 October 2018). "Me and My Motor: the author Joanna Trollope". The Sunday Times . Retrieved 24 March 2019. (subscription required) It also surprised me to see Anna give in when Peter went to Pricewell's and told the manager that Anna was resigning. This seemed to me more likely to occur in the 1950's than the 1990's. As Anna is beginning to find her own way in life, she is observed with a certain amount of passionate interest by three significant men. Each of these men will play his own specific role in the part-tragic, part-triumphant blossoming of Anna's life. Their individual stories will eventually become intertwined for a time with Anna's own personal journey through her life.When Joanna considers what has happened to her career she says: ‘I think we all have a particular filter through which we see the world. It could be sport, or dance, or numbers, or pictures, or music – anything really that each of us feels is where we are most at home and most able to express ourselves. And for me it was always words…. I also wanted to communicate with other people, I always have. All of which, I suppose, adds up to becoming a writer.’ He is then told by a neighbour that Anna is having an affair. As it turns out she IS, but not with the man the neighbour accuses her of. Peter is livid, gets in his car to go and find Anna and tell her that he wants a divorce, and is hit by a bus and killed. ​ I wish that I had known more about Peter's character. We see him mostly through the eyes of his wife and children. His stubbornness and own crisis of faith when he is turned down for a promotion makes him an unlikable character. But then he is not the focus of psychological introspection like Anna is, which is only fitting since she is the title character. But a little more character development would have provided more depth to the novel. a b c Bedell, Geraldine (27 June 1993). "Gloucestershire Chronicles". The Independent on Sunday. Archived from the original on 9 June 2022 . Retrieved 24 March 2019.