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Joanna Trollope's favourite books

Much-loved author of family fiction, Joanna Trollope, shares her favourite reads with us

By Joanne FinneyPublished: 09 February 2015

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The Passion by Jeanette Winterson

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The Passion by Jeanette Winterson is set partly in Venice, and partly in Napoleon's army. It’s written so powerfully and beautifully that some sentences just make you marvel.

Joanna Trollope's latest novel, A Balancing Act, is out now in paperback.

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Period Piece by Gwen Raverat

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Gwen Raverat, the granddaughter of Charles Darwin, wrote and illustrated a wonderful and funny memoir called Period Piece, all about growing up in grand bohemian Cambridge. It shows Victorian women at their most brave, enterprising and engaging.

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Long Ago In France by MFK Fisher

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On a book tour in Australia 20 years ago, a bookseller asked if I’d ever read any books by MFK Fisher. I hadn’t even heard of her! The bookseller gave me a copy of Long Ago In France, which is Fisher's account of discovering France and food in 1929. She was the pre-cursor to Elizabeth David and a superb writer, too.

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The Towers Of Trebizond by Rose Macaulay

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I have always loved The Towers Of Trebizond by Rose Macaulay, which has got absolutely everything: travel, romance, polemic, jokes, myth, love, lyricism and animals. It was her last novel, and her best.

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Jigsaw by Sybille Bedford

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One of my most beloved novels is Jigsaw by Sybille Bedford - as is evidenced by the fact my copy is falling to pieces! It's based on her own experience of growing up with her fascinating but addict mother in the South of France.

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