Today marks the 211th anniversary of the birth of Anthony Trollope, a novelist who, more than most, continues to feel present in our lives. He wrote about the pressures of society, the pull of money, the demands of work, and the complications of love with a clarity that still speaks directly to us. Two centuries on, his world is recognisably our own.

Trollope’s great strength lies in his understanding of people as they are rather than as they ought to be. His characters are rarely heroes or villains. Instead, they are flawed, self-justifying, hopeful, anxious, and often quietly brave. He shows us how individuals move within systems, whether the Church, Parliament, the law, or the family, and how those systems shape behaviour. It is this realism, humane and unsentimental, that keeps readers returning to him.

But if Trollope rewards solitary reading, he is perhaps even richer when read in company. There is something about his novels that invites discussion. Motives are rarely simple. Decisions are open to interpretation. Readers disagree, and those disagreements are often the point. To read Trollope together is to see more clearly what he is doing.

That shared reading has become central to the life of the Society through the Big Read, now in its sixth year. What began as an experiment has grown into a thriving, international community of readers. Across the years, there have been more than 15,000 participant sessions, with readers joining from around the world to listen, reflect, and take part in the conversation. Day by day, chapter by chapter, Trollope’s novels are read not as historical curiosities, but as living works.

This evening, many of us will gather for dinner at the Garrick Club. It is a particularly apt setting. Trollope became a member in 1861 and remained closely associated with the Club for the rest of his life. Within a short time, following Thackeray’s death, he was invited to take his place on the Committee, a role he held with pride. For a man who had known little of society in his earlier years, the Garrick offered something new and deeply valued.

As he recalls in his Autobiography, the Club quickly became a source of genuine pleasure:

Having up to that time lived very little among men, having known hitherto nothing of clubs, having even as a boy been banished from social gatherings, I enjoyed infinitely at first the gaiety of the Garrick.

What comes through is Trollope’s enjoyment of company. Trollope valued the talk, the companionship, and the small rituals of shared time. The Garrick was, for him, a place where conversation mattered and where friendship was formed and sustained. It is not difficult to see the connection between that world and our own gathering this evening.

The continued vitality of Trollope’s work is not an accident. It depends on readers who are willing to engage with him, to argue about him, and to keep his novels in circulation. The Society exists to support that work: through events, publications, and opportunities for readers to come together.

If you value what the Society does, and if you believe, as we do, that Trollope still has something important to say, please consider making a donation to support our work. Your support helps ensure that new readers continue to discover him, and that those who already know him can go on reading together.

• Donate to support the work of the Trollope Society