From our UK edition
29 min listen
Joanna Trollope is an award-winning novelist, whose books have sold more than eight million copies worldwide. She's known best for her novel, The Rector's Wife, which was adapted into a TV series. On the podcast, she talks to Katy about the expectations on her as a girl growing up in the 40s, how stay at home mums can still be feminists, and how, as she gets older, she finds she gets her way more.
From our UK edition
Goodness, Wales is gorgeous to look at. The landscape is sublime. I woke in Abergavenny to snow on the Black Mountains, interspersed with emerald green valleys — all that rain is not for nothing. The natural beauty only heightens a troubling question. Wales voted for Brexit, but every road, university and waterfront improvement scheme — and they are everywhere — is EU-funded. Excuse me? What were all those warmly welcoming people I met thinking of exactly?
From our UK edition
Oh dear. Usually writers who contribute to these diaries start with something like, ‘To Paris. To launch my novel at Shakespeare and Company.’ Well, I went instead to Penarth, which is a charming seaside suburb of Cardiff, and got a right royal welcome. I told the customers of Griffin Books (and Book-ish in Crickhowell and Cover to Cover in Mumbles) that I forbade them to buy books from Amazon. If they didn’t support their independent bookshops, they would lose them. And bookshops are vital for community health. Think what Daunt’s did for Marylebone High Street; started its transformation from a non-street to a destination street, no less. Speaking of Daunt’s, do you realise that their business rates are about to double?
