Joanna Trollope, bestselling chronicler of domestic life, dies at 82

The novelist Joanna Trollope, whose portrayals of British domestic life made her one of the nation's most widely read authors, has died at the age of 82.

- Emma Loffhagen

Trollope published more than 30 novels during a writing career that began in 1980. Her early works, written under the pseudonym Caroline Harvey, were historical romances, but from the mid-1980s onward, she turned to contemporary fiction, a shift that would define her reputation.

In a statement, her daughters said she died peacefully at home on Thursday.

"It is with great sadness that we learn of the passing of Joanna Trollope, one of our most cherished, acclaimed and widely enjoyed novelists," said the author's literary agent, James Gill. "Joanna will be mourned by her children, grandchildren, family, her countless friends and - of course - her readers."

Trollope’s breakthrough came with novels including The Rector’s Wife, which in 1991 knocked leading authors off the top of the charts, and later works including A Village Affair and Mum & Dad, which tackled issues ranging from infidelity, remarriage, parenthood and adoption to the strains on the so-called “sandwich generation” caring for both their children and their parents.