The significance in little things
Relationships are as fascinating as they can be fragile and fraught. Between the mere mortals that we humans are, the fine art of communication and commitment can challenge even the most skilled and careful among us. For this reason, I love the stories Joanna Trollope weaves in her books. They are always and inevitably about the trials and triumphs or failures of connections among and between people. Trollope, a fifth-generation niece of Anthony Trollope , writes about the English, a culture and a people that are my heritage. I like being immersed in families for whom a cup of tea and cold-buttered toast with marmalade can be breakfast. The characters tend to be ordinary contemporary individuals, living their lives while trying to navigate a change of some kind, sometimes introduced by a new person in the village or in the family, and sometimes by a change in circumstance — illness, aging, birth or death of a pivotal person relative to the protagonist(s). Put like that, it sounds so m...