Joanna Trollope: are mistresses always in the wrong?

Putting her life into her books…
'In a way Other People's Children and Marrying the Mistress reflect certain parts of my own life. I've been married twice, and I'm a stepmother. I'm close to my stepsons, even though I'm no longer married to their father. But I would never put an exact life experience of my own into one of my books; it would hurt other people.

I have a very strong sense of ethics. I have a very large family, to whom I'm very close: parents, a brother, a sister, two daughters, two stepsons and grandchildren. They mean so much to me, and I would never do anything to distress them. I will do everything in my power to protect their privacy. The press is very invasive.

Everything I observed in my own life, though, informs and enriches all that I write. I don't believe there is any such thing as a 'normal family'. Every family is idiosyncratic and difficult - but each is still a success. That's because the family unit is where we, as children, learn our human skills and how to interact with others. These subtle accomplishments cannot be learned without a little bloodshed. People who say they lived wonderful, problem-free lives are really saying they haven't lived at all. "Dysfunctional" is not a word to be ashamed of. It means you have participated in the human race, with all its troubles and triumphs.'