This is the story of Anthony Trollope, an (apparently) utterly English and conservative writer, whose life cuts against what Barchester readers might expect of him.

This was a man raised by high born parents who had lost their money, who was bullied in his teens, who joined the Post Office and took an assignment in Ireland to escape professional and financial difficulties. He took to the Irish people so much that the English literati accused him of ‘going native’, yet he became one of our best loved novelists. He wrote over 50 books, insisted that he only wrote for money, and penned many of them on trains en route to inspect rural post offices.

What kind of a man was he? And why does his work still resonate so strongly for readers across the English-speaking world. Is it, as WH Auden said, because he’s one of the only English novelists truly to understand money and work?

Presented by the poet Michael Symmons Roberts – who has been adapting Trollope’s novels for Radio 4.

The Voice of Trollope: Hamilton Berstock
Producer: Faith Lawrence.

Click here to go to the BBC website and listen to The Story of Anthony Trollope