Joanna Trollope, acclaimed author of more than 30 novels exploring family tensions, relationships and the quiet crises of ordinary life, has died peacefully at home on Thursday, her daughters said. She was 82.
Trollope rose to prominence in 1991 and went on to publish many hits. Though sometimes labelled "Aga sagas," she rejected the term, arguing her books were far more subversive and unsentimental than critics suggested.
A distant relative of Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope, she began writing while working and raising two daughters, and she is survived by both of them. Many of her works were adapted for television and earned her an OBE and later a CBE.
Praised by Fay Weldon for her ability to "put her finger on the problem of the times," Trollope focused on changing social roles and the private anxieties behind everyday life. She said she wanted her books to reassure readers: "It's OK, we all feel like that."