The Rector's Wife: a moving and compelling novel of sacrifice and self-discovery from one of Britain's best loved authors, Joann

Description

A poignant story of lonliness, rebellion and love. For twenty years, Anna Bouverie, as a priest's wife, has served God and the parish in a variety of ways. She has baked for the Brownies, delivered parish magazines, washed and ironed her husband's surplices and clothed herself and her children in jumble-sale items. When her husband fails to gain promotion to archdeacon and retreats into isolated bitterness, and the bullying of her daughter at the local comprehensive reaches an intolerable level, Anna rebels. She takes a job in the local supermarket where she earns her own money, her sense of self-worth, the shocked disapproval of the parish and the icy fury of her husband. She also attracts the passionate interest of three very different men, each of whom was to play a significant part in the blossoming of her life ...

Joanna Trollope is the author of eagerly awaited and sparklingly readable novels often centred around the domestic nuaunces and dilemmas of life in present-day England. She has also written a number of historical novels and Britannia's Daughters, a study of women in the British Empire. Joanna Trollope was born in Gloucestershire and now lives in London. She was appointed OBE in the 1996 Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to literature.

The portrayal of the petty frustrations of clerical life is spot on and the novel is elegantly written * The Sunday Times * I would have killed anyone who wrested this novel from my hands... it's compulsive reading * The Times * This is Trollope's finest novel to date. Prepare to be wittily and wisely entertained by an exceptional writer * Daily Mail * Like a Barbara Pym novel, though Joanna Trollope has a much stronger grasp than Pym on the tangled web of family life * The Times * The portrayal of the petty frustrations of clerical life is spot on and the novel is elegantly written * Sunday Telegraph *