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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Anthony Trollope
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(1815–82)
The outstanding English novelist of clerical and political intrigue. Until 1867 he had a successful full-time career in the Post Office (he is credited with inventing the pillar box), and he wrote his numerous books by a prodigious feat of self-discipline, rising at 5.30 each day and writing 2500 words before breakfast. He conceived the idea for his Barsetshire series when visiting Salisbury Cathedral (he was on a tour to inspect rural postal deliveries), and it got off to a magnficent start with The *Warden (1855) and *Barchester Towers (1857).
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After four more in the series, ending with The Last Chronicle of Barset (1866–7), he moved from the cathedral precinct to Westminster for the six Palliser novels (1864–80). These centre on the ambitions of Plantagenet Palliser and his wife Glencora; he eventually becomes duke of Omnium and prime minister. In 1868 Trollope himself stood unsuccessfully for parliament as a Liberal candidate. The Way We Live Now (1874–5), his longest and most ambitious novel, is a satirical panorama of a society which worships wealth.
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The intrigues of the typical Trollope plot are ideal for a television serial, as was suggested in The Pallisers (BBC 1975) and then triumphantly proved in The Barchester Chronicles (BBC 1982, consisting of The Warden and Barchester Towers).
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