Joanna Trollope is an English novelist, originally a writer of historical romantic fiction, before becoming an author of contemporary fiction, for which she has become better known. She is his fifth-generation niece of Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope.

Her work, including best sellers The Choir and The Rector’s Wife, has often been dismissed as ‘the Aga sagas’, for their rural themes and settings, though this belies the often bleak and subversive nature of her plots.

Presented here are five BBC Radio productions of some of Trollope’s better known stories:

Other People’s Children – The complications facing parents when a marriage breaks down and a new relationship begins. Joanna Trollope’s tale about the traumas and delights of adjusting to a new step-family.

Parson Harding’s Daughter – Caroline Harding’s only suitor disappeared to India without her and forgot that he’d ever planned to marry her. She was left with few hopes, for what was there for a parson’s daughter – of limited means and no looks – to expect in 1775?

Daughters-in-Law – As a spirited new daughter-in-law joins the Brinkley clan, simmering tensions threaten family harmony. Evoking the beautiful wilds of Suffolk, this is a sharply observed study of a family in crisis – suspected affairs, unspoken tensions and money troubles threaten to tear this close-knit cast of characters apart.

A Village Affair – Alice and Martin Jordan relocate with their three children to the quiet English village of Pitcombe, and all seems to be well at first. But there is a secret below the surface which begins to emerge after Alice meets Clodagh, the daughter of local landowner Sir Ralph Unwin.

Dora and Elizabeth – Specially written by Joanna Trollope to mark the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. Dora shares her birthday with the Queen. She reflects that this was the only thing about her that made her mother proud.