Faith running in the family - a tribute to Joanna Trollope

In 1991, when I first read Joanna Trollope’s, “The Rector’s Wife”, my immediate thought was that she must be related to Anthony Trollope. And so indeed she was, five generations down.

My favourite Victorian novelist has always been Anthony Trollope. I loved his blend of realism, character development and honesty. He had just as difficult a childhood as Dickens, but never capitalised on it.

The six novels in his Barsetshire Chronicles followed the fortunes of a group of clergy and their family, shining a light on the men behind the vestments. Trollope was adept at describing weaknesses and foibles, but never wrote in a judgemental way about his characters. His women are infinitely more believable than Dickens’ (who generally fall into either idealised angel or fallen Madonna types) and he is the only Victorian novelist ever to mention male prostitutes.

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 Like her illustrious ancestor, several of Joanna’s books focused on the clergy and the church.

 Like her illustrious ancestor, several of Joanna’s books focused on the clergy and the church. Like him, her work shone a light on ordinary people struggling with issues of faith, relationships and emotions. I was on the verge of becoming a Christian as I read about her heroine Anna Bouverie, married to a man she met at university who is becoming increasingly cold and unloving as he carries out his duties as the rector of his parish.

Anna gets a job, to the disapproval of her husband and many of his parishioners, stands up for her bullied daughter and starts making changes in her life. Throughout, I was impressed by the lack of judgement about those decisions. Like Anthony, who draws entirely believable portraits of women in unhappy marriages, being abused by their families or living with the consequences of poor decisions, Joanna wrote books full of people we instantly recognise.

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She was born in her grandfather’s rectory and raised in a Christian family. During interviews, when faith came up, she spoke about themes around it and how stories can comfort us. She wrote thirty-two books, some under a pseudonym, across a variety of genres. Many of her plots were set around family dynamics and difficulties, mirroring her society. Church was not portrayed as a cosy place of escape, but as an arena where human failures and foibles play out alongside a genuine desire to do the right thing and follow the tenets of Christianity. (“The Choir” and “The Rector’s Wife” are excellent examples of this.) She wasn’t dogmatic or preachy, just like her famous ancestor. Her literature was eminently readable and still stands up today, like his.

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Early on her career, the tag, “Aga Saga” was attached to her books, something she disliked intensely. Her novels were often dismissed as froth, featuring unrealistic characters, usually by those who hadn’t read them. 

Early on her career, the tag, “Aga Saga” was attached to her books, something she disliked intensely. Her novels were often dismissed as froth, featuring unrealistic characters, usually by those who hadn’t read them. Anthony attracted criticism from his contemporaries because of his honesty about the way he wrote. He never waited for the muse to alight, but paid one of his servants an extra £5 a year to wake him up at 5.30 am with a cup of coffee. He wrote for two hours then went to work at the Post Office. His dogged determination to write a set number of words a day didn’t chime with many Victorians, who preferred their novelists more rugged and mercurial. Both he and his famous descendent were prolific, character-driven and honest about life’s difficulties. Joanna wrote while working and bringing up her two children. Both were adept at juggling plates, a very modern attribute.

Both Trollopes explored Christian themes, the mechanics of the Church of England and social issues. Joanna Trollope once said that she hoped her work inspired everyone, not just Christians. Many of her novels resonated with Christian readers, but could be enjoyed by anyone of other faiths or no faith at all. Her primary aim was to tell a good story, peopled by believable characters, with a relatable redemptive arc.

Anthony Trollope once said, “This habit of reading, I make bold to tell you, is your pass to the greatest, the purest, and the most perfect pleasure that God has prepared for his creatures.”

Joanna Trollope brought that perfect pleasure to millions of readers in her lifetime and like her ancestor, her words will live on.