24 Apr 2022
On This Day
24 April 2022 Cheryl

24 April 1815: Anthony Trollope is born

Anthony Trollope, 1860s

Anthony Trollope began his writing day at 5.30 every morning, and would write for three hours before going off to his day job at the Post Office. He wrote 250 words every 15 minutes, pacing himself with a watch. He paid his servant an extra £5 a year to wake him up with a cup of coffee. [1]

Renowned English novelist Anthony Trollope was born on 24 April 1815 at Russell Square, London. I adore his novels and fortunately, he wrote 47 of them, so there is plenty to feed my Trollope addiction.

Anthony Trollope was the third of four children in his family. His father, Thomas Anthony Trollope, was a barrister, and his mother, Frances was a successful writer. His father was not very successful in his legal career, and the family faced financial struggles. When Trollope was just five years old, his father abandoned the family and moved to Belgium, leaving Frances to raise their four children on her own. His mother was a strong influence on his early years. She encouraged his love for literature and storytelling, and Trollope developed a passion for books and writing from a young age. He was an avid reader, and his mother’s own writing career inspired him to pursue a similar path.

At the age of seven, Trollope was sent to the prestigious London School, Harrow, as a free day pupil for three years. After a spell at a private school at Sunbury, he followed his father and two older brothers to Winchester College, where he also remained for three years before returning to Harrow as a day-boy to reduce the cost of his education. Trollope had some very miserable experiences at these two schools, he had no money and no friends and was bullied a great deal. At the age of 12 he fantasised about suicide. He also daydreamed, constructing elaborate imaginary worlds.

After completing his education, Trollope became a clerk in the Post Office in 1834 and was transferred to Ireland as a post office surveyor in 1841. On 11 June 1844 at Rotherham, Yorkshire, he married Rose Heseltine. In 1843 he began writing novels to supplement his income and retired from the Post Office in 1868 to focus on writing full time.

Trollope’s early years were not without challenges, financial and otherwise, but they also provided him with valuable life experiences that would later inform his writing. His love for literature, instilled by his mother, and his early exposure to the realities of life and human nature would serve as the foundation for his successful career as a writer.