The author, 69, on living alone, the Orange prize, and the "cupcake image"
"I am not a fan of the cupcake image. This idea that you can distract a girl with something frivolous like a cake or shoes or handbags, and she won’t be a threat to men": author Joanna Trollope. Photograph: Suki Dhanda for the Observer
My earliest memory is of summer 1945, sitting on my grandparents' carpet in Gloucestershire. My father was in India – I didn't meet him until I was four – and an American airman from a nearby base brought me a banana, which I'd never seen before.
I really like football. I didn't intend to like it – I went to Chelsea v Portsmouth to research a scene for a book and have been a Blues fan ever since. The language can be a bit fresh, but the game is good. I'm just heartbroken that my hero Didier Drogba is leaving.
We do still need the Orange prize for fiction [Trollope is chair of judges]. Women buy nearly 70% of the books in this country, and yet only a quarter of the books reviewed are by women. I'm not a fan of quotas per se, because they can be exploited and they're patronising, but I do think it's necessary if we are going to dissolve prejudices, and for people to think differently about women. We have fewer prejudices about race, religion and sexuality because legislation came into place, and if we can stop people from saying things, we might actually change their thought processes.
I am not a fan of the cupcake image. This idea that you can distract a girl with something frivolous like a cake or shoes or handbags, and she won't be a threat to men. In the 19th century we were corralled to the church: "Go and be emotional about your religion, dear, and you don't need to be anywhere else." This is the modern-day equivalent.
I mean for my writing to be "accessible". People criticise me for it as if to say that something comprehensible can't be intellectually of worth. But isn't the point to communicate something well? I'm terribly pleased there are people out there who are arcane and experimental, but that's not me.
I'd describe myself as "single-ish". I have a long-term relationship which is part time. I live alone and don't have to justify anything. I eat when I'm hungry and I can spend the weekend in bed with a copy of Grazia if I so wish.
I don't need to marry again. I've been married twice, and I love it when it works, but these days we live until we're 80 and marriages are jolly long.
My advice would be not to write until after 35. You need some experience, and for life to knock you about a bit. Growing up is so hard you probably won't have much emotion to spare anyway.
I don't think television comedy is up to much, but I do like Miranda Hart. She's the type of girl I recognise – all that vulnerability and yearning.
There is no doubt that JK Rowling's life is a little circumscribed by the money she's made. Of course she wanted Harry Potter to be a success, but you do wonder whether she meant it to be exactly this kind.
Sex after 60 is liberating. Post-menopause I think you're in a different physiological space – although your fertile years are absolutely amazing.
When it comes to injustice metered out to anybody dear to me, I just want to go and kill people.
I really like football. I didn't intend to like it – I went to Chelsea v Portsmouth to research a scene for a book and have been a Blues fan ever since. The language can be a bit fresh, but the game is good. I'm just heartbroken that my hero Didier Drogba is leaving.
We do still need the Orange prize for fiction [Trollope is chair of judges]. Women buy nearly 70% of the books in this country, and yet only a quarter of the books reviewed are by women. I'm not a fan of quotas per se, because they can be exploited and they're patronising, but I do think it's necessary if we are going to dissolve prejudices, and for people to think differently about women. We have fewer prejudices about race, religion and sexuality because legislation came into place, and if we can stop people from saying things, we might actually change their thought processes.
I am not a fan of the cupcake image. This idea that you can distract a girl with something frivolous like a cake or shoes or handbags, and she won't be a threat to men. In the 19th century we were corralled to the church: "Go and be emotional about your religion, dear, and you don't need to be anywhere else." This is the modern-day equivalent.
I mean for my writing to be "accessible". People criticise me for it as if to say that something comprehensible can't be intellectually of worth. But isn't the point to communicate something well? I'm terribly pleased there are people out there who are arcane and experimental, but that's not me.
I'd describe myself as "single-ish". I have a long-term relationship which is part time. I live alone and don't have to justify anything. I eat when I'm hungry and I can spend the weekend in bed with a copy of Grazia if I so wish.
I don't need to marry again. I've been married twice, and I love it when it works, but these days we live until we're 80 and marriages are jolly long.
My advice would be not to write until after 35. You need some experience, and for life to knock you about a bit. Growing up is so hard you probably won't have much emotion to spare anyway.
I don't think television comedy is up to much, but I do like Miranda Hart. She's the type of girl I recognise – all that vulnerability and yearning.
There is no doubt that JK Rowling's life is a little circumscribed by the money she's made. Of course she wanted Harry Potter to be a success, but you do wonder whether she meant it to be exactly this kind.
Sex after 60 is liberating. Post-menopause I think you're in a different physiological space – although your fertile years are absolutely amazing.
When it comes to injustice metered out to anybody dear to me, I just want to go and kill people.
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