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Q&A with author Joanna Trollope. Send a Question and enter a draw to win one of ten copies of her latest book The Soldier's Wife - ANSWERS BACK

45 replies

RachelMumsnet · 31/01/2013 10:28

Author Joanna Trollope is going to be taking your questions this week. Her latest book, The Soldier's Wife has been described as 'an absorbing look at the modern military wife' and 'a cracking read...thoroughly researched, compassionate, humourous and topical.'

Joanna has been writing for over thirty years, first as a historical novelist and more recently as a writer of contemporary fiction, including The Choir, Daughters-In-Law and The Rector's Wife. She was appointed OBE in 1996 and was Chair of Judges for the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2012.

Send a question to Joanna before the end of Tuesday 5th February and you'll be entered into a draw to win one of ten copies of The Solder's Wife. We'll post up Joanna's answers on 12th February.

OP posts:
gazzalw · 01/02/2013 12:32

Hi Joanna

Joanna how to do you feel about being called the queen of the Aga-Saga?

Have you ever thought about writing a book for children or teenagers?

Thanks

Ashoething · 01/02/2013 12:41

Joanna

How do you feel about the recent Shades of grey phenomenen? A good or a bad thing for the publishing world.

Thanks in advance for answering my question.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 01/02/2013 13:02

Joanna - How hard is it to write a particularly unsympathetic character? I'm thinking particularly of the vicar husband in 'The Rector's Wife' - I wanted to shake him so many times during the story - was there a temptation to soft-pedal the character?

highlandcoo · 01/02/2013 17:25

Hi Joanna

Have you ever inadvertently portrayed one of your friends and family in your novels and if so did they recognise themselves?

SunshinePanda · 01/02/2013 18:46

Hi Joanna,
After looking at your back catalogue I think I have read all your books over many years! Which one novel would you recommend as bring quintessential Trollope, for either a new reader (eg my teenage DD) or as reader reacquainting themselves?

Punkatheart · 01/02/2013 20:59

Can you remember the first story you ever wrote?

scottishmummy · 02/02/2013 20:46

hello Joanna, never read any of your books.what do you recommend and why

montage · 02/02/2013 21:03

I always used to save your books for long flights as I knew they would be absorbing, I still throughly enjoy rereading them especially as a comfort read.

I like the way that you portray characters who are being controlling towards others (the Judge's wife in "Marrying the Mistress", and the mother-in-law in "The Village Affair", in particular) and how those around them gradually realise they can't take being manipulated anymore. I find the dynamics wholly realistic. I like the way that self-absorbed behaviour and acting to stifle other people does not ultimately work for any characters that attempt it, it's always a very positive read.

My question is, have you ever considered writing a sequel for one of your books and letting us know what happened to the characters down the line? (I would most to know what happened with Frances in "A Spanish Lover" after the story ended!)

Lomaamina · 02/02/2013 21:34

I loved 'Daughters-in-Law'. The depiction of the interior life of the characters was paricular close to my own experiences. There is one moment in the book that really made me stop short as it rang so true (having left my country of birth and lived in England all my adult life): when Sigrid's mother tells her that she doesn't belong in Sweden any more: "You've been away too long. It isn't even the country you grew up in. All the people you grew up with have changed with the country, and although you have changed with England you haven't moved on here. How could you? You haven't been here'" This so utterly resonated with my own experience of feeling a dislocation when visiting 'home' - which isn't home any more, even though my family and old school friends are still people I like to see when I visit.

So not really a question, (but if you felt like responding, please do!).

p.s. I thought your description of Arnold Circus wonderful. Not just of the architecture, but capturing its odd social make-up with older socially housed tenants living alongside the incomers.

Hopezibah · 03/02/2013 14:56

How do you decide upon the main story line or plot in your stories? Do you have ideas in advance that you have always wanted to write about or are they inspired by specific events or experiences?

phonem260 · 03/02/2013 22:25

This reply has been deleted

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katb1973 · 04/02/2013 17:36

What books inspired you as a child?

Thank you and I enjoy reading your books.

Quejica · 04/02/2013 17:45

How long does it take you to both research and write a novel, and do you procrastinate while you should be writing? Thank you, I love your books Smile

StellaMarie · 04/02/2013 17:52

Hi, over the years I have read all your books! What I'd like to ask you is when you are working on a novel do you focus solely on that storyline or do you have storylines for several novels on the go at once?

Thanks!

Awks · 04/02/2013 20:49

Hi Joanna, would you consider supporting an Armed Forces charity like www.ssafa.org.uk? If so, please pm me.

HeavenlyAmy · 04/02/2013 23:10

Hi Joanna, if you ever need to ask any questions for a possible follow up to this book, I used to be an army wife for 17 years, and have a wealth of experience I wouldn't mind sharing. Your book looks interesting, if I don't win it on here, I may buy it.

Merrylegs · 05/02/2013 08:19

Hello Joanna.

It's National Libraries Day on Saturday 9th Feb.

If you were to go the library on Saturday, which book would you choose to borrow and why?

(You can borrow up to 15 on your card in my county so you could pick more than one!)

MNHQ
RachelMumsnet · 06/02/2013 15:30

Fifteen books? What a generous library. Great question to end with Merrylegs. Thanks to everyone for posting the questions which we've now sent over to Joanna. We'll be posting up her answers on 12th Feb.

OP posts:
MNHQ
RachelMumsnet · 14/02/2013 14:30

We now have Joanna's answers and will post them up on the board. Congratulations to: Highlandcoo, Ashoething, SunshinePanda, Montage, Hopezibah, Katb1973, Awks, HeavenlyAmy, Merrylegs and Lomaamina who have all won signed copies of The Soldier's Wife. Thanks to all for taking part.

OP posts:
JoannaTrollope · 14/02/2013 14:50

@gazzalw

Hi Joanna

Joanna how to do you feel about being called the queen of the Aga-Saga?

Have you ever thought about writing a book for children or teenagers?

Thanks

Lovely email! Pretty tired of that patronising old tag by now especially as it is so inaccurate. But I think it's wearing off, don't you? Hope so!

That's a very flattering suggestion. I think the teenage genre is probably the hardest of all to get right and I really admire those who can do it so I think the truthful answer is that other writers are much better at teenage and children's writing than me... But thank you!

JoannaTrollope · 14/02/2013 14:56

@Ashoething

Joanna

How do you feel about the recent Shades of grey phenomenen? A good or a bad thing for the publishing world.

Thanks in advance for answering my question.

Broadly speaking anything that sells the written word is good! Having said that, my personal view is that the Fifty Shades trilogy was so riotously successful because it was actually about money, and the power money brings and the sex was almost incidental. It has been ever thus with romantic fiction, even with the sainted Jane Austen! But my considered view is that in five years time we will look back on this and describe it as 'a fad'. Don't you think? Thanks so much for writing.

JoannaTrollope · 14/02/2013 14:57

@SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius

Joanna - How hard is it to write a particularly unsympathetic character? I'm thinking particularly of the vicar husband in 'The Rector's Wife' - I wanted to shake him so many times during the story - was there a temptation to soft-pedal the character?

What an interesting question - thank you. When it comes to the less likeable characters, my aim is to make them realistic, whether good or bad. So, I strive to give reasons for people in my novels behaving as they do even if, like life, there are no excuses. So, because authenticity is my aim, my heart doesn't have to be embedded in every character and, if it were, the outcome would be a very sentimental cast list which you, the reader, wouldn't believe in!

JoannaTrollope · 14/02/2013 14:57

@highlandcoo

Hi Joanna

Have you ever inadvertently portrayed one of your friends and family in your novels and if so did they recognise themselves?

Never! I promise you I would neither dare to, nor dream of it! My characters are patchworks of real human elements but i would never take anybody from real life and put them in a novel. And, I have to say, at the risk of sounding a bit stuffy, I rather disapprove of anyone who tries to. You have to be a genius, like Evelyn Waugh, to get away with it.

JoannaTrollope · 14/02/2013 14:58

@SunshinePanda

Hi Joanna, After looking at your back catalogue I think I have read all your books over many years! Which one novel would you recommend as bring quintessential Trollope, for either a new reader (eg my teenage DD) or as reader reacquainting themselves?

Thank you! I think for your daughter it might be a good idea to start with something like 'Friday Nights' to see if she likes the style and the voice. For somebody coming back to reading me ( thanks to them too!). What about ' Daughters-In-Law', especially if they have one?!

JoannaTrollope · 14/02/2013 14:59

@Punkatheart

Can you remember the first story you ever wrote?

Well, now. When I was 14, with frizzy hair, thick specs, braces on my teeth and I was already 5 foot 9, I wrote a short novel about the kind of teenager I wished I was which was the compete opposite of all the above... Nobody has ever read it and they aren't going to, either! My daughters can fall about with mirth over it once I am safely six feet under!