the captivating and heart-wrenching story of a marriage put to the test from one of Britain’s best loved authors, Joanna Trollope

The Soldier's Wife

Does marrying a soldier mean marrying the army? The topical new novel from this number one bestselling author.

Fans of Erica James, Elizabeth Noble and Amanda Prowse will devour this gripping novel by multi-million copy bestselling author Joanna Trollope which lays bare the snags and frustrations of family life and the dangerous pressure points in relationships. Guaranteed to keep you hooked... 
 
'Written with all Trollope's customary skill and panache, this is an absorbing look at the modern military wife who no longer automatically follows the drum' -- Daily Mail 
'The Soldier's Wife is a cracking read and has clearly been thoroughly researched. All the little details which animate a novel ring true... compassionate, humourous and topical' - Spectator 
'Another great page turner from Joanna Trollope, one of her best' -- ***** Reader review 
'My only criticism - it was too short - I didn't want it to end!' -- ***** Reader review 
'Hard to put down' -- ***** Reader review 
'I couldn't put the book down!' -- ***** Reader review 
 
************************************************************** 
DOES MARRYING A SOLDIER ALWAYS HAVE TO MEAN YOU ARE NOT MARRYING A MAN, BUT A REGIMENT? 
 
The soldiers are coming home - after six months in Afghanistan. Surely being reunited with their wives and girlfriends and families will be heaven, after the hell they have been through. 
 
When Dan Riley returns to his adored wife, Alexa, and their children, his Army life still comes first. Alexa thought she was prepared to help him, and the whole family, to make the transition to normal life again - but no-one had told her how lonely and near impossible the task would be...

Written with all Trollope's customary skill and panache, this is an absorbing look at the modern military wife who no longer automatically follows the drum

Nobody understands the snags and frustrations of family life better than Joanna Trollope.  She also captures the dangerous pressure points in relationships, the steady build-up of tension, the exact moment when the family fur might really start to fly

Trollope is on top form, hitting the zeitgeist with this perceptive and compassionate inside story of an army marriage

The Soldier's Wife is a cracking read and has clearly been thoroughly researched. All the little details which animate a novel ring true... compassionate, humourous and topical

Trollope is always immensely readable, managing to depict characters' inner turmoil with deft, artful simplicity.  Here, she brings her emotionally acute eye to bear on army life

With her stories about the tensions of middle-class families, Trollope consistently picks women's-page issues. In The Soldier's Wife, she continues to explore the power balance in relationships and whether it's possible to be happy if we subjugate our desires to someone else

As always, Joanna Trollope sucks you into the story; as always, she pins people's emotions with deft details.

Joanna Trollope is the author of seventeen highly acclaimed bestselling novels. She has also written a study of women in the British Empire, Britannia's Daughters, as well as a number of historical novels. Born in Gloucestershire, she now lives in London. She was appointed OBE in the 1996 Queen's Birthday Honours List. 
 
Visit her website at www.joannatrollope.com

Ebook Bundle

Joanna Trollope: The Other Family & A Village Affair

Joanna Trollope is the number-one bestselling author of seventeen highly acclaimed contemporary novels. Awarded the OBE for services to literature, she has also written historical fiction and a study of women in the British Empire, Britannia’s Daughters. She lives in London. 
 
Visit her website at www.joannatrollope.com

This special 2-for-1 collection features two classic Joanna Trollope novels: The Other Family and A Village Affair. 
 
The Other Family: 
 
Chrissie, in the twenty-three years she'd been together with Richie, had always believed that he loved her. He loved their three daughters and their house in Highgate and their happy, lively existence. But if she really was the love of his life, why had he never given her the one thing that would have made her life perfect? 
 
Then suddenly Richie is no longer there, and without him Chrissie's carefully constructed life is in jeopardy.The one big fact she had always tried to keep from her daughters threatens to overwhelm them all. For Richie had still been married to his first wife, the one with a son that he had abandoned in Newcastle. 
 
And now, with Richie gone and the practicalities of wills and money to be sorted out, it is finally time for the two families to face each other ... 
 
A Village Affair: 
 
The Grey House is the answer to everything in Alice Jordan's perfect life. It seems to be the ultimate achievement of her outwardly happy marriage – a loyal, if dull husband, three children, two cars and now the house. So why does she feel as if something crucial is missing? 
 
As Alice and her family settle themselves into village life the something missing becomes something huge and then breaks, scandalizing the village, opening up old wounds. But because of it, Alice begins to feel that there is hope and humour, understanding and compassion in the new life she must build for herself.

An enthralling, irresistible and beautifully moving novel from one of Britain’s most popular authors

Daughters-in-Law

Can a mother ever hand over her son to another woman?

Can a mother ever hand over her son to another woman? 
 
In this emotional and thought-provoking novel, multi-million copy bestselling author Joanna Trollope expertly weaves a study of familial relationships with a lightness of tone and real sense of compassion. Fans of Elizabeth Noble, Erica James and Amanda Prowse will love it! 
 
'Trollope writes about family life with wit, intelligence and verve' - Guardian 
'Wonderfully observed and readable' - THE TIMES 
'Infallibly elegant...Look more closely and something as grim as Greek tragedy is played out around the cosy family dining table' - Daily Telegraph 
'I found it hard to put this book down' -- ***** Reader review 
'A brilliant book' -- ***** Reader review 
'Always an enjoyable read - Joanna Trollope is the mistress of family emotions' -- ***** Reader review 
'I read it last week and have started to re-read it immediately.' -- ***** Reader review 
 
************************************************************************************** 
DAUGHTERS-IN-LAW : THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER 
 
When you've dedicated your life to your children, what happens when they grow up? 
 
Rachel loves being at the centre of her large family. She has devoted herself fiercely to bringing up her three sons, but at their childhood home on the wide, bird-haunted coast of Suffolk, Rachel finds that her control begins to slip away. Other women - her daughters-in-law - are usurping her position. They have become more important to her boys than she is. 
 
A crisis brings these subtle rifts to the surface. 
 
Can there be a way forward, if they are to survive as a family?

We love Trollope's novels and await each new one with excitement

Supremely sure of her material and purpose, compassionate but never sentimental

Infallibly elegant... All this lies beneath the sparkling, well groomed surface of a novel which could quite easily be read as a light diversion for an idle afternoon. But look more closely and something as grim as Greek tragedy is played out around the cosy family dinner table

As ever, Trollope writes about family life with wit, intelligence and verve

A poignant tale about a mother watching her children grow up and marry, and her sadness as they drift further away. Joanna's descriptive writing expresses true wrought emotion and hurt

The author's psychology, as always, is sound, the plotting secure and the pacing brisk and page-turning.  Another winner

Sociologically and psychologically as observant as ever

Book of the Month:  An intuitive and sympathetically observed piece of writing

Trollope writes with customary compassion and humanity in this heartwarming and engaging novel

A very superior work of women's fiction... an exceedingly skilled analysis of the relationship between different generations of women and how the power shifts as the old, as they must, get old and the young move on... it is a story told beautifully

The legendary Ms Trollope triumphs yet again, with her latest slick of classy chick-lit

This thoroughly engaging, intelligent, literate novel

The brilliantly observed portrayal of family life is wonderfully compelling - and a story many will be able to identify with. ****

an utterly compelling novel from bestselling author Joanna Trollope

The Other Family

A topical and utterly compelling contemporary novel from the number one bestselling author.

Fans of Elizabeth Noble, Erica James and Amanda Prowse will love this absorbing, emotionally charged and beautifully written novel from multi-million copy bestselling author Joanna Trollope. Our lives are not always as rock-solid as we think... 
 
'Inventive, surprising and fascinating' - The Times 
'A page-turner that feels like sinking into a warm, deep bath. With Trollope you are always in safe hands. Highly recommended' -- Sunday Express 
'Trollope is shrewdly observant of human interaction' -- Daily Telegraph 
'Fascinating' -- ***** Reader review 
'Absolutely gripping' -- ***** Reader review 
'I could hardly bear to put it down' -- ***** Reader review 
'Another unputdownable book from Joanna Trollope' -- ***** Reader review 
 
****************************************************************** 
SOME SECRETS ARE TOO BIG TO STAY HIDDEN... 
 
Chrissie had always believed that her husband Richie was the one. With their three daughters, a lovely house and a fulfilling career, things couldn't be much better. And even if he hadn't given her the one thing she really wanted, she knew he loved her. 
 
But suddenly Richie is no longer there and, without him, Chrissie's carefully constructed life comes tumbling down and the secrets start to come out. 
 
As the practicalities of Richie's will must be sorted out, Chrissie must tell her daughters of their father's other family, a wife and son he had abandoned years before and sworn never to see again. And now, it is finally time for the two families to face each other...

Trollope is brilliant at swooping in on a modern dilemma and showing it from every angle... Inventive, surprising and fascinating

She writes as observantly as ever. There are always those brilliant brief glimpses of some detail which ring wonderfully true

Trollope is shrewdly observant of human interaction

Trollope really knows and understands how people think and behave and she paints them realistically and with love... A page-turner that feels like sinking into a warm, deep bath. With Trollope you are always in safe hands. Highly recommended

Joanna Trollope is the most emotionally intelligent of contemporary British novelists

A rich, satisfying and - ultimately - uplifting read. It's the work of an author at the top of her game

A literary big hitter with a velvet touch

The Other Family is highly involving, deeply humane

Trollope is a barometer of modern middle-class mores, with a talent for pin-pointing the burning issues in supposedly ordinary lives

Joanna Trollope has many, enviable skills but perhaps her greatest is for identifying and illuminating the emotional truths of contemporary life

Trollope explores, with infinite delicacy, the strands that make a family

An absorbing contemporary novel from one of our most perceptive writers

Trollope has created a fount of bitchy tension which she manipulates with great skill

Joanna Trollope is the author of fifteen highly acclaimed, bestselling contemporary novels. She has also written a study of women in the British Empire, Britannia's Daughters, as well as a number of historical novels. She was born in Gloucestershire and now lives in London. She was appointed OBE in the 1996 Queen's Birthday Honours List. 
 
Visit her website at www.joannatrollope.com

an engrossing novel about female friendship – and its limits – from one of Britain’s best loved authors, Joanna Trollope

Friday Nights

Another superb novel from this number one bestselling author.

Fans of Erica James, Elizabeth Noble and Amanda Prowse will love this enthralling novel from the pen of multi-million copy bestselling author Joanna Trollope. With her customary acute observation and expert characterisation, Trollope makes her readers not only identify with her characters but also become deeply attached to them. You will not be able to put this book down! 
 
'Trollope, as ever, can be relied upon to deliver a good read' -- Mail on Sunday 
'An entertaining novel' -- Independent on Sunday 
'Hits a right and ringing note and keeps hitting it' -- Independent 
'Excellent gripping to the end' -- ***** Reader review 
'This, for me, was a "can't put down" type of book!!' -- ***** Reader review 
'Best Trollope book I have read so far!' -- ***** Reader review 
'Pure pleasure' -- ***** Reader review 
 
****************************************************************************************************** 
 
THEY WOULDN'T LET ANYTHING - OR ANYONE - GET IN THE WAY OF THEIR FRIENDSHIP, WOULD THEY? 
 
Friday nights, the best night of the week, the night they all looked forward to more than they cared to admit - talking, drinking, laughing and crying together. 
 
They were six female friends, different in age and circumstances, but with one common need: the warmth and support of their Friday nights. It was a time to share secrets and fears, triumphs and tragedies and, above all, to feel safe in the company of women friends. 
 
But things never stay the same forever, especially when a man is introduced into the mix...

Trollope, as ever, can be relied upon to deliver a good read

With her customary acute observation, Joanna Trollope examines different attitudes to work, relationships and children...In this engrossing novel, Trollope makes her readers not only identify with her characters but also become deeply attached to them

Hits a right and ringing note and keeps hitting it

Val Hennessy, Victoria Moore and Amber Pearson

Joanna Trollope is the author of many highly acclaimed bestselling novels. She has also written a study of women in the British Empire, Britannia's Daughters, as well as a number of historical novels. 
 
Born in Gloucesterhire, she now lives in London. She was appointed OBE in the 1996 Queen's Birthday Honours List. 
 
Visit her website at www.joannatrollope.com

Fans of Erica James, Elizabeth Noble and Amanda Prowse will love this enthralling novel from the pen of multi-million copy bestselling author Joanna Trollope. With her customary acute observation and expert characterisation, Trollope makes her readers not only identify with her characters but also become deeply attached to them. You will not be able to put this book down! 
 
'Trollope, as ever, can be relied upon to deliver a good read' -- Mail on Sunday 
'An entertaining novel' -- Independent on Sunday 
'Hits a right and ringing note and keeps hitting it' -- Independent 
'Excellent gripping to the end' -- ***** Reader review 
'This, for me, was a "can't put down" type of book!!' -- ***** Reader review 
'Best Trollope book I have read so far!' -- ***** Reader review 
'Pure pleasure' -- ***** Reader review 
 
****************************************************************************************************** 
 
THEY WOULDN'T LET ANYTHING - OR ANYONE - GET IN THE WAY OF THEIR FRIENDSHIP, WOULD THEY? 
 
Friday nights, the best night of the week, the night they all looked forward to more than they cared to admit - talking, drinking, laughing and crying together. 
 
 They were six female friends, different in age and circumstances, but with one common need: the warmth and support of their Friday nights. It was a time to share secrets and fears, triumphs and tragedies and, above all, to feel safe in the company of women friends. 
 
But things never stay the same forever, especially when a man is introduced into the mix...

a deeply moving and insightful novel from one of Britain’s most popular authors

Brother & Sister

Her insightful, bestselling novel about who we are and where we come from.

'Pacy, absorbing and compassionate' Daily Mail 
'Brilliantly perceptive' Daily Telegraph 
'An important novel' Evening Standard 
_______________________________ 
 
Will a journey into the past lose them more than they gain? 
 
Nathalie and David have been good and dutiful children to their parents, and now, grown-up, with their own families, they are still close to one another. Brother and sister. 
 
Except that they aren't - brother and sister that is.They were both adopted, when their loving parents, found that they couldn't have children themselves. And up until now it's never mattered. 
 
But suddenly, Nathalie discovers a deep need to trace her birth parents and is insisting that David makes the same journey. And through this, both learn one of the hardest lessons of all, that sometimes, the answers to who we are and where we come from can be more difficult than the questions ... 
 
This is an emotional and thought-provoking novel about who we are and where we come from is insightful and prescient, perfect for fans of Elizabeth Noble, Erica James and Amanda Prowse. 
_______________________________ 
 
Readers love Brother & Sister: 
 
'5 stars' 
'Kept me really interested all the way through' 
'Another Joanna Trollope winner' 
'Very entertaining and thought provoking'

Her prodigious flair for illuminating emotional situations guarantees the appeal of Trollope's work... immediate and engrossing

No one is better at observing and reporting changes in relationships and family dynamics than Joanna Trollope

Joanna Trollope

Trollope writes about family relationships with intelligence and clear-eyed sympathy, and the outcomes of this terrific novel are always believable as they are surprising.  To be relished.

Trollope is an extremely assured writer, with a brilliant eye for detail and a finely tuned emotional intelligence ... she writes absorbing, wise stories that dramatise the dilemmas we face. In Balancing Act, she has done it again.

Joanna Trollope, whose evocations of human relationships are as ever penetrating and engaging.

With her compassion for her characters, Trollope cuts to the quick of family life, and the difference between men and women.  I loved it.

Nobody writes about family tensions better than Joanna Trollope.

Trollope...remains painfully skilled in tracing the faultlines in human relationships.

a hugely readable novel…Trollope writes with unflagging skill. She is brilliant at exploring the often unearned sense of entitlement within families

an absorbing and authentic novel from one of Britain’s most popular authors

Family and business, husbands and wives, parents and children. It's always a balancing act... In this emotional and thought-provoking novel, multi-million copy bestselling author Joanna Trollope expertly weaves a study of familial relationships with a lightness of tone and real sense of compassion. Fans of Elizabeth Noble, Erica James and Amanda Prowse will not be disappointed. 
 
'To be relished.' -- The Times 
'Joanna Trollope's evocations of human relationships are, as ever, penetrating and engaging.' -- Daily Express 
'A joy to read' -- ***** Reader review 
'A great read, very engrossing and hard to put down' -- ***** Reader review 
'A real page-turner' -- ***** Reader review 
'Sublime' -- ***** Reader review 
 
******************************************************************************************** 
 
WHEN EVERYTHING YOU'VE WORKED TO ACHIEVE SUDDENLY FEELS PRECARIOUS, YOU'LL DO WHAT IT TAKES TO KEEP IT STABLE... 
 
Four strong women. All working in a family business. But what happens when they begin to want different things? And what about the men - and the children - in their lives? 
 
Susie Moran has always been the breadwinner in her family. Her husband was the one who was there for their three girls. But now he wants something of his past back - the life he had before Susie's career took off, before they had children. And those children don't see their mother's business the way she has always seen it, thereby threatening the balance she has worked so hard to achieve. 
 
And then, amidst the simmering tensions, someone significant from the past, someone almost forgotten, turns up. The problems of the past, the present, and the future all become challenges to the stability of both family and work. Which relationships - if any - will survive?

Joanna Trollope

Praise for Balancing Act

Trollope writes about family relationships with intelligence and clear-eyed sympathy, and the outcomes of this terrific novel are always believable as they are surprising. To be relished.

Trollope is an extremely assured writer, with a brilliant eye for detail and a finely tuned emotional intelligence ... she writes absorbing, wise stories that dramatise the dilemmas we face. In Balancing Act, she ha ...

Joanna Trollope, whose evocations of human relationships are as ever penetrating and engaging.

Trollope writes about family relationships with intelligence and clear-eyed sympathy, and the outcomes of this terrific novel are always believable as they are surprising. To be relished.

Trollope is an extremely assured writer, with a brilliant eye for detail and a finely tuned emotional intelligence ... she writes absorbing, wise stories that dramatise the dilemmas we face. In Balancing Act, she ha ...

Joanna Trollope, whose evocations of human relationships are as ever penetrating and engaging.

Trollope writes about family relationships with intelligence and clear-eyed sympathy, and the outcomes of this terrific novel are always believable as they are surprising. To be relished.

Trollope is an extremely assured writer, with a brilliant eye for detail and a finely tuned emotional intelligence ... she writes absorbing, wise stories that dramatise the dilemmas we face. In Balancing Act, she ha ...

Joanna Trollope, whose evocations of human relationships are as ever penetrating and engaging.

Books by Joanna Trollope

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter