FIRST IMPRESSIONS: JOANNA TROLLOPE
What are you working on at the moment?
I’m just promoting, because I have written five books in five years. I am in the middle of promoting my re-imagined Jane Austen, Sense And Sensibility, and then after Christmas it will be my new novel, which is called Balancing Act. I know what the next two novels will be about but I haven’t started on the research for them yet. As long as human beings go on behaving as they have been behaving, I shall never run out of topics.
When were you at your happiest?
I think now. I have more peace of mind.
What is your greatest fear?
I don’t want to answer.
What is your earliest memory?
Sitting on the floor of my grandmother’s house, on the carpet, holding a banana, surrounded by a ring of adults who were longing for the banana because it was wartime. I don’t really remember the banana, just the feeling that they all wanted something very much that I didn’t realise the value of. I suppose I was about 18 months old. I remember the patch of sunlight on the carpet and me sitting in it.
What do you dislike about yourself?
I think that is none of anybody’s business.
Who has been your greatest influence?
Far too many people to count.
What is your most treasured possession?
My descendants.
What trait do you most deplore in others?
Extreme self-involvement.
Your favourite book?
It doesn’t exist. There are about a dozen of them. I think a novel I perpetually admire is The Towers Of Trebizond by Rose Macaulay. It is in my top 10.
Your favourite film?
I think possibly something like Jules And Jim. Again, it’s a huge list and that’s just one of them.
Your favourite piece of music?
Most of Mozart, most of Fauré, quite a lot of Schumann and the easier bits of Chopin.
Your favourite meal?
Fish in some form and fruit in some form and green vegetables. I’m very keen on green ones, tremendously simply cooked. I’m not a great one for sauces.
Who would you most like to come to dinner?
There was an incredibly brave Victorian explorer called Mary Kingsley who was also extremely funny. David Garrick the actor, I think he would have been enormous fun. John Keats, I would have been absolutely fascinated by him. Eleanor Roosevelt, I rather like the sound of her. Elvis, just so we could look at him, and it would be awfully nice if he could sing, too.
What is the nastiest thing anyone has ever said to you?
Such questions are really bad energy. No dwelling, it is fruitless to dwell on the bad stuff .
Do you believe in aliens?
No.
Do you write thank-you notes?
Always.
Which phrase do you most overuse?
You would have to ask all the exhausted people who are frequently in conversation with me.
What would most improve the quality of your life?
Something quite complicated, such as being assured of a happy future for all my descendants. It’s certainly something psychological like that.
Tell us something surprising about yourself.
I am rather good with a needle. I used to make all my own clothes – and the children’s.
What would you like your epitaph to read?
‘Remembered with affection’.
Sense And Sensibility by Joanna Trollope is published by HarperCollins, priced £18.99.
I’m just promoting, because I have written five books in five years. I am in the middle of promoting my re-imagined Jane Austen, Sense And Sensibility, and then after Christmas it will be my new novel, which is called Balancing Act. I know what the next two novels will be about but I haven’t started on the research for them yet. As long as human beings go on behaving as they have been behaving, I shall never run out of topics.
When were you at your happiest?
I think now. I have more peace of mind.
What is your greatest fear?
I don’t want to answer.
What is your earliest memory?
Sitting on the floor of my grandmother’s house, on the carpet, holding a banana, surrounded by a ring of adults who were longing for the banana because it was wartime. I don’t really remember the banana, just the feeling that they all wanted something very much that I didn’t realise the value of. I suppose I was about 18 months old. I remember the patch of sunlight on the carpet and me sitting in it.
What do you dislike about yourself?
I think that is none of anybody’s business.
Who has been your greatest influence?
Far too many people to count.
What is your most treasured possession?
My descendants.
What trait do you most deplore in others?
Extreme self-involvement.
Your favourite book?
It doesn’t exist. There are about a dozen of them. I think a novel I perpetually admire is The Towers Of Trebizond by Rose Macaulay. It is in my top 10.
Your favourite film?
I think possibly something like Jules And Jim. Again, it’s a huge list and that’s just one of them.
Your favourite piece of music?
Most of Mozart, most of Fauré, quite a lot of Schumann and the easier bits of Chopin.
Your favourite meal?
Fish in some form and fruit in some form and green vegetables. I’m very keen on green ones, tremendously simply cooked. I’m not a great one for sauces.
Who would you most like to come to dinner?
There was an incredibly brave Victorian explorer called Mary Kingsley who was also extremely funny. David Garrick the actor, I think he would have been enormous fun. John Keats, I would have been absolutely fascinated by him. Eleanor Roosevelt, I rather like the sound of her. Elvis, just so we could look at him, and it would be awfully nice if he could sing, too.
What is the nastiest thing anyone has ever said to you?
Such questions are really bad energy. No dwelling, it is fruitless to dwell on the bad stuff .
Do you believe in aliens?
No.
Do you write thank-you notes?
Always.
Which phrase do you most overuse?
You would have to ask all the exhausted people who are frequently in conversation with me.
What would most improve the quality of your life?
Something quite complicated, such as being assured of a happy future for all my descendants. It’s certainly something psychological like that.
Tell us something surprising about yourself.
I am rather good with a needle. I used to make all my own clothes – and the children’s.
What would you like your epitaph to read?
‘Remembered with affection’.
Sense And Sensibility by Joanna Trollope is published by HarperCollins, priced £18.99.