Hear the nickname “Queen of the Aga Saga” and you might expect an author who specialises in cookbooks or frothy stories set in the kitchen – but Joanna Trollope, who has died aged 82, was nothing of the sort, with books that tackled everything from divorce and empty-nest syndrome to bereavement and self-harm with compassion and honesty.
In her lifetime, the author behind bestselling novels including 1991’s The Rector’s Wife was lumped with the dismissive nickname by English author Terence Blacker, owing to her tales of love and betrayal set in Middle England.
