Mum and Dad by Joanna Trollope

 

                                      

Hardback: 325 pages

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Publisher: Macmillan 2020

Source:  Tywyn Library

First Sentence: This was Monica's favourite time of day, these early mornings - dawns, really, and surprisingly dark, even in southern Spain - when nobody expect the village cockerels appeared to be up.

Setting: Spain and England

Review Quote: Trollope writes about family relationships with intelligence and clear-eyed sympathy ― The Times

My Opinion:  I am a long time fan of Joanna Trollope as I have been reading her novels since her first 'The Choir' was published in 1989 and have always found her novels to be light and entertaining.  'Aga Sagas' used to be the popular term for her style of writing, although it is not heard much nowadays, it does still seem to describe her writing about contemporary relationships.

It is a family crisis that draws the characters together in ‘Mum and Dad’. Although the episode forms the backbone of the novel it is actually the relationships between the protagonists that drives the story. Complex family relationships and challenges face a family in a quandary as they all struggle to settle their differences.

The author is the original ‘Queen ‘ of exploring the complications of family relationships in her novels, of which ‘Mum and Dad ‘ is the twenty-second.  A very prolific writer who is well worth reading for a good story that is well told.

Précis Courtesy of Goodreads: 

"What a mess, she thought now . . . what a bloody, unholy mess the whole family has got itself into." 

It’s been 25 years since Gus and Monica left England to start a new life in Spain, building a vineyard and wine business from the ground up. However, when Gus suffers a stroke and their idyllic Mediterranean life is thrown into upheaval, it’s left to their three grown-up children in London to step in . . . Sebastian is busy running his company with his wife, Anna, who’s never quite seen eye-to-eye with her mother-in-law. Katie, a successful solicitor in the city, is distracted by the problems with her long-term partner, Nic, and the secretive lives of their three daughters. And Jake, ever the easy-going optimist, is determined to convince his new wife, Bella, that moving to Spain with their 18-month-old would be a good idea. As the children descend on the vineyard, it becomes clear that each has their own idea of how best to handle their mum and dad, as well as the family business. But as long-simmering resentments rise to the surface and tensions reach breaking point, can the family ties prove strong enough to keep them together?

Author Profile:         

                                                                                           

                                                     Courtesy of Amazon Profile

Joanna Trollope was born on 9 December 1943 in her grandfather's rectory in Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire, England, daughter of Rosemary Hodson and Arthur George Cecil Trollope. She is the eldest of three siblings. She is a fifth-generation niece of the Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope and is a cousin of the writer and broadcaster James Trollope. She was educated at Reigate County School for Girls followed by St Hugh's College, Oxford. On 14 May 1966, she married the banker David Roger William Potter, they had two daughters, Antonia and Louise. In 1983 they divorced, two years later, she married the television dramatist Ian Curteis, they divorced in 2001.

From 1965 to 1967, she worked at the Foreign Office. From 1967 to 1979, she was employed in a number of teaching posts before she became a writer full-time in 1980. In 1996 she was awarded the OBE for services to literature.She now lives alone in London.

A comprehensive biography can be read on her Official Author Website

Photographs, Trailer and Biographical Information courtesy of the following sites:

Facebook Profile.  Official Author Website   Wikipedia Profile

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