It’s been announced that best-selling novelist Joanna Trollope has died at the age of 82 at her Oxfordshire home.
Born in 1943 to the family of Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope (she was his fifth-generation niece), writing was clearly in her blood and, after a short stint working at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, she began penning historical romances under the pseudonym of Caroline Harvey.
In 1987 she published The Choir, switching to contemporary fiction for the first time with hugely successful results and was a fixture in the best-seller charts for the rest of her hugely-productive writing career.
Read more: Joanna Trollope: Best-selling author and 'queen of the Aga saga' Joanna Trollope dies aged 82
Aside from selling millions of copies a number of her books have also been adapted for film and television, including The Rector's Wife, The Choir, A Village Affair and Other People's Children.
With so many books to choose from, it’s hard for a Joanna Trollope beginner to know where to start.
To help out, we’ve had a look at how the millions of readers of book website Goodreads have rated her books.
Here are the top 10.
Make sure you don't miss a moment of breaking news from across Scotland by signing up to our free newsletter here.
1. The Choir (1988)
With an average rating of 3.81 from 2,739 ratings, Joanna Trollope's 1988 book 'The Choir' is the novel best rated by readers. "In the gentle precinct of Aldminster Cathedral, crisis looms. The urbane and worldly Dean wants nothing so much as to restore and beautify his beloved Cathedral - even if it means sacrificing the Choir School to pay for it. Alexander Troy, Headmaster of the school, a conscientious man, is determined that nothing and no-one - certainly not the overbearing Dean - should destroy the Choir. As the rift widens to take on immense dimensions, many others find themselves caught in the schism - Leo Beckford, brilliant but wayward organist, repelling the adoration of the Dean's dreadful daughter; the gentle, left-wing Bishop, trying to soothe the angry protagonists; Sally Ashworth, mother of the leading chorister, fighting loneliness and an erring and absent husband..." | Contributed
2. Other People's Children (1998)
Second spot goes to 1998's Other People's Children with an average rating of 3.76 from 2,772 reviews. "For eight-year-old Rufus life has become complicated. His parents, Josie and Tom, have divorced and are setting off on separate paths. But now, other people have had to become involved, like his mother's new husband Matthew and his father's new friend Elizabeth. What's even worse is that there are other children too, Matthew's three teenagers, who have been conditioned by their mother Nadine to hate his mother Josie. Matthew's children come to their father for weekends and make it clear how much they loathe Josie. Rufus secretly prefers to be with his father, in his peaceful flat in Bath, where he realises that he doesn't actually hate the idea of a stepmother, if she is peaceful and sane like Elizabeth. But where other people's children are concerned, neat solutions seldom occur..." | Contributed
3. The Rector's Wife (1991)
The final podium position when it comes to best Joanna Trollope books goes to 1991's The Rector's Wife, with an average rating of 3.76 from 3,767 reviews. "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..." | Contributed
4. The Men and the Girls
The Men and the Girls, published in 1992, earns an average rating of 3.73 from 2,191 reviews. "Julia Hunter and Kate Bain have found true happiness with men old enough to be their fathers. Julia organises her husband Hugh and their cherubic twins with ruthless efficiency and Kate has lived with James, for eight years, and although she refuses to marry him, she's apparently devoted to him. Hugh and James, lifelong friends, feel blessed indeed. But age differences cannot be ignored forever and when James accidentally knocks a fiercely independent spinster from her bicycle a chain of events is set off in which many suppressed discontents and frustrations emerge. Kate begins to seek out friends of her own age and Julia's career begins to blossom just as her husband's starts to decline..." | Contributed