Many charities highlight March as Free Wills Month, encouraging people to think about making a Will and the causes they care about. The Trollope Society takes a slightly different approach. Through our partnership with FreeWills, we offer supporters a free Will writing service throughout the year.

Making a Will is one of the simplest ways to ensure that the people and causes you care about are looked after. Once family and loved ones have been provided for, many people choose to remember a charity that has meant something to them during their lifetime.

For readers of Anthony Trollope, that charity may well be the Trollope Society.

Find out about leaving a gift in your Will to the Trollope Society.

In his Autobiography, Trollope modestly suggested that Barchester Towers might be “read for perhaps a quarter of a century”. Yet more than two hundred years after his birth, his novels continue to find new readers around the world. Trollope’s fiction speaks to something enduring in human nature. His novels explore character, sympathy and moral choice with a clarity that still feels strikingly modern. Readers return to Trollope not only for the pleasure of his storytelling, but also for the insight his work offers into human motivation and moral judgement.

The Trollope Society exists to keep that tradition of reading alive. Through our website, publications, lectures, conferences and events, we introduce new readers to Trollope while bringing together those who value his work.

One example of this work is our global online reading group, the Big Read, where readers from around the world meet every two weeks to discuss Trollope’s novels chapter by chapter. For many participants, it becomes far more than a book group. It is a community where readers share their enthusiasm for Trollope and form lasting friendships.

Another example is the Society’s conference programme. This March we will hold a two-day conference, “Trollope: The Law and Transgression”, at Magdalene College. The conference brings together scholars, lawyers, novelists and readers to explore how Trollope’s fiction engages with questions of law, morality and social rule-breaking. Papers will examine topics ranging from property and inheritance law to gender, conscience and international legal thought, showing how deeply questions of justice and transgression run through Trollope’s novels.

Alongside events and publications, the Society also maintains a substantial website that reaches readers across the world. A major new website project, due to launch later this year, will improve its functionality and ensure that the Society keeps pace with modern communications technology, helping us reach both new and existing readers more effectively.

A gift in your Will can help support this work.

After providing for family and friends, even a small percentage of your estate can make a meaningful difference. Your legacy will help ensure that Trollope’s novels continue to be read, discussed and enjoyed by future generations.

Through our partnership with FreeWills, supporters in England and Wales can create a free, legally binding Will online in about fifteen minutes. There is no obligation to include a gift to the Society, but the service makes it easy to set out your wishes clearly.

If you would like to find out more about making a Will or updating an existing one, and how you might include the Trollope Society, please visit our Gifts in Wills page on the website. Your support can help ensure that Trollope’s novels continue to be read for the next quarter of a century and beyond.

Find out about leaving a gift in your Will to the Trollope Society