Bestselling author of the “Aga Sagas”, Joanna Trollope, has passed away at the age of 82.
Trollope carved out a successful career penning popular romance and intrigue novels such as The Rector’s Wife, Marrying the Mistress and Daughters in Law. She died peacefully in her Oxfordshire home, according to a statement from her daughters.
Born on 9 December 1943 in her grandfather’s rectory in Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire, England, Trollope leaves behind two daughters, Louise and Antonia, two stepsons and her grandchildren.
Between 1965 and 1967, she served as a civil servant at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. From 1967 to 1979, she worked as a teacher before dedicating herself full-time to writing in 1980. She later transitioned to contemporary fiction, the genre that would establish her reputation.
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Trollope began her writing career crafting historical romances under the pseudonym of Caroline Harvey. Born in Gloucestershire, a fifth-generation niece of English novelist and civil servant Anthony Trollope, she studied English at Oxford University before securing employment at the Foreign Office and working as an educator, prior to becoming a full-time writer.
In a heartfelt statement, her daughters Louise and Antonia said: “Our beloved and inspirational mother Joanna Trollope has died peacefully at her Oxfordshire home, on 11th December aged 82.”
Her debut contemporary work, The Choir, appeared in 1987, followed by The Rector’s Wife in 1991, which famously knocked Jeffrey Archer off the top spot of the hardback bestseller charts.
Trollope once famously described the appeal of her novels by stating: “I think my books are just the dear old traditional novel making a quiet comeback.”
She went on to contribute the inaugural title to Harper Collins’ revival of the Jane Austen collection, The Austen Project.
Her interpretation of “Sense and Sensibility” hit shelves in October 2013, though it achieved modest commercial success.
In 1966, Trollope wed city banker David Roger William Potter, with whom she had two daughters.
She remarried in 1985 to television dramatist Ian Curteis, becoming stepmother to his two sons. Following their divorce in 2001, Trollope relocated to West London.
During her 1994 appearance on Desert Island Discs, Trollope noted that men frequently dismissed her work as inconsequential.
Her typical response to such criticism was: “It is a grave mistake to think there is more significance in great things than in little things.”
She received an OBE in 1996, later upgraded to a CBE in recognition of her contributions to literature.
Her father, Arthur, was stationed in India on military duty when she was born at the family’s Cotswolds rectory in 1943, whilst her mother, Rosemary, was an artist and author.
At just 14 years old, Trollope could recite Jane Austen from memory and had already penned her debut novel, which remained unpublished, though she later granted her children permission to read it.
Her stories of love and intrigue set in rural middle England eventually earned her the label “Queen of the Aga Saga”, a description she told The Independent in 2020 that she considered “patronising”.
“Needless to say it was created by a man,” she said, referring to English author Terence Blacker, who coined the term in 1992. She branded it “idle journalism” and voiced her contempt for the tabloid features that recycled it for years afterwards.
Her novels actually explored countless weighty themes, from divorce, bereavement, sibling rivalry, affairs, motherhood, betrayal and depression. She released more than 30 books across four decades, originally publishing under the pen name Caroline Harvey.
Her major success arrived with works such as The Rector’s Wife, followed by chart-toppers including A Village Affair, Next of Kin, Other People’s Children and Marrying the Mistress. She walked down the aisle twice: initially to city banker David Potter in 1966, with whom she welcomed her two daughters.
Her second marriage was to playwright and screenwriter Ian Curteis in 1985; the union ended in divorce in 2001.
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Trollope revealed to The Independent that she experienced a “mini-breakdown” following her second divorce and felt “impelled to flee” the Cotswolds for London: “The girls were away at school and I put the dogs and the toothbrush in the car and left. I just needed to get the hell out.”
She alleged that she was told she was “imagining” the problems in her second marriage and that the blame lay with her: “I mean, quite a lot of professionals were saying this to me, as well as the ex-husband.
“And really, I think it was about this subject that fascinates me forever and ever, which is the way some people try to control others. It’s usually because of their own inadequacies that they try and control somebody who they feel is stronger and might elude them.”
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Source: Mirror
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