Joanna trollope author biography of suzanne

By her own admission, Joanna is not someone who loved her schooldays. 'I only really started to enjoy education when I got to university. No school can be blamed, however, it was more my childhood and adolescent sense of being an outsider, of not belonging (a very formative sense, I now know, for being a writer) that made me miserable at a time when 99.9% of children long to conform.

But, I was very well taught, however, and I think I sensed this, even then.'

After winning a scholarship to Oxford University, Joanna joined the Foreign Office and then became a teacher. She began writing 'to fill the long spaces after the children had gone to bed' and for many years combined her writing career with working as a teacher. In 1980, Joanna became a full-time author. 'My first novel was written when I was 14, all about myself, of course (it is now kept under lock and key in case my children find it...) I suppose I wrote it for the same reason that I