Joanna Trollope

Other People’s Children

The eldest of three children born to a rector and his wife, Joanna Trollope grew up in the picturesque Cotswolds in the south of England. Driven more by a need to communicate and a love of story than by a sense of literary destiny (she is distantly related to the famous Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope), Joanna started writing as a young girl, producing her first novel in 1957 at the age of fourteen. (She kept it locked away.)

From Other People’s Children:

“She glanced toward her daughter. Josie looked so happy, so pretty, in a cream silk suit with her red hair done up somehow behind her head, that it seemed downright unkind to have misgivings.”

Joanna entered Oxford University on a modest scholarship and there met David Potter, her future husband. They had two daughters, but split acrimoniously after eighteen years together.

One year later, in 1967, Trollope left her job in England’s Foreign Office and became a teacher. After the children had gone to bed, she took up writing again, and in 1980 devoted herself to it full-time. Her first published books were historical novels under the name Caroline Harvey.

Trollope married TV screenwriter Ian Curteis in 1985. The following year she wrote her final pseudonymous historical novel, The Choir. The first book released under her given name appeared in 1988, followed by a streak of bestselling novels.

Now divorced a second time, Joanna Trollope lives in London, near her family and friends. She still writes in longhand and says writing her books generally takes as long as a pregnancy. In 1996, she was awarded the Officer of the British Empire (OBE) for services to literature.

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Apricot Brandy Cobbler

In Other People’s Children, Elizabeth goes to Harrods to buy a pheasant, Stilton cheese, and candied apricots to take down to her father in Bath.

1 tsp. superfine sugar

3 oz. club soda

2 oz. apricot brandy

1 maraschino cherry

1 orange slice

In an old-fashioned glass, dissolve the sugar in the club soda. Add crushed ice until the glass is almost full. Add the brandy. Stir well. Garnish with the cherry and orange slice. Serves 1.