He described it as ‘the Reverend Obadiah Slope gives a sermon that no one likes, 50 pages pass while everyone discusses this.’ That’s not entirely true, but it is more character-driven.

For one, that there was no map (he likes fantasy), and two, he felt there was no plot. In fact, I tried to get my son to read a Trollope and he was just outraged. They are plot-driven, but they’re not suspenseful, in that sense. So, are Trollope’s books not hugely plot-driven then, if you can dip in and out of what Lady Carbury has been up to? The other point about Trollope is that, even though the books are long, they’re brilliant if you are looking after small children, because like many Victorian novels, he’s really great at saying, ‘The reader will recall that last time we met Lady Carbury she was debating two offers of marriage’ and you go, ‘Yeah, right, I completely forgot that because it’s been a month since I’ve been able to pick up a book.’ So, they’re really good if you have to read in short snatches of time. He’s got this very warm relationship with his audience. Also, as a writer, I’ve learned a lot from him. He’s also brilliantly funny because he’s amused by these things. Oh, you went to Connecticut College? Hmmm. One of his big things is single women trying to get married and the marriage market in all its facets, where people are very blatantly trying to measure up: ‘Who could I get? How much money do they have? What’s their social status? What can I trade for that?’ I think that’s still relevant today, people do still weigh those things up, they measure social status, it’s just not so blatant. The other thing is that he’s unbelievably pertinent, I think, especially to women. It was very, very confusing to me, but he was just great on social niceties. I was very puzzled about the role of lawyers and doctors and how the whole class system worked. Trollope is brilliant on class and money and the nuances of these things. So, I picked one up and found it like a ‘guide for the perplexed’ about everything to do with British society. As a keen reader, I always had this policy that if someone mentioned an author I’d never heard of, I would read them. What happened was that I came to Oxford to do a second degree and someone that I was staying with, a family friend, mentioned Trollope. Sorry, I need to compose myself, but just the shock of this news. Is it true that you’ve never read a Trollope?

Look at him! So now that you know this fact… He’s like my husband from another century.

Foreign Policy & International Relationsīefore we get to the books by Anthony Trollope you’re recommending, how did you get into him?įirst of all, I should declare that I am passionate about Trollope and I’m also madly in love with him.

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