Bestselling author Joanna Trollope has died aged 82

Author Joanna Trollope has died at the age of 82.

The bestselling author died peacefully at her home in Oxfordshire on Thursday, her daughters Antonia and Louise said.

Trollope was best known for her novels set in rural middle England and focused on domestic life and relationships, including The Rector’s Wife, Marrying The Mistress, Other People’s Children and Second Honeymoon.

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.”

Her writing was once dubbed Aga Sagas, a term which the author strongly disliked and described as “patronising”.

She previously told the Press Association: “That was a very unfortunate phrase and I think it’s done me a lot of damage.

“It was so patronising to the readers too.”

Trollope studied English language and literature at the University of Oxford after winning a scholarship and went on to join the Foreign Office after graduating.

She later trained as a teacher, however, in 1980 turned to writing full-time.

It was not until 1991 that she became a household name with her novel, The Rector’s Wife which was later adapted for TV starring Scottish actress Lindsay Duncan and Jonathan Coy.

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

A central theme in her most recent novel, Mum & Dad, looked into the “sandwich generation” or middle-aged people who are looking after both their children and their elderly parents.

The book followed three siblings, and their partners and children, who come together at their parent’s home in Gibraltar after their father has a stroke, to work out how they are going to look after their mother and keep the father’s wine business going.

She also took part in The Austen Project which saw six of author Jane Austen’s novels retold by six contemporary writers.

Trollope penned the first book in the series with Sense & Sensibility published in 2013.

In 2017, she joined the publisher Pan Macmillan and was described by the chief executive, Joanna Prior, as a “treasured author”.

She said: “She was much admired for her astute judgment, sharp wit, fun company and steely determination, and appreciated for the kindness she showed to those who worked closely with her.

“Joanna and I got to know each other before I joined Pan Macmillan as she was a trustee of the National Literacy Trust when I joined their board. She was an inspiration in the way she supported the work of the charity and helped with fundraising, always making time and speaking with passion about the importance of books and reading. Her own novels were captivating and thought-provoking and it was a privilege to be her publisher.”

Jeremy Trevathan, Trollope’s publisher at Pan Macmillan, added: “Joanna was such a witty, wise and empathetic author who wrote with a really unerring insight into the complexities and anxieties of contemporary family life but she was also just lots of fun to be with.

“It was such a privilege for us that she came to us for her later fiction.

“The only consolation is that she leaves us all a wonderful legacy of compelling, insightful social commentary, portraying family dynamics with warmth, intelligence and a keen eye for human foibles.”

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 won the Romantic Novel of the Year in 1980 for book Parson Harding’s Daughter and in 2010 received a lifetime achievement award by the Romantic Novelists’ Association (RNA) for her services to romance.

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