Her most recent work Mum & Dad, published in 2020, chronicled three siblings and their families who gather after their father suffers a stroke.

Trollope died peacefully at her home in central Oxfordshire, her daughters Antonia and Louise said.

“It is with great sadness that we learn of the passing of Joanna Trollope, one of our most cherished, acclaimed and widely enjoyed novelists,” her literary agent James Gill said.

Jeremy Trevathan, Trollope’s publisher at Pan Macmillan, paid tribute to a “witty, wise and empathetic” author who was also “just lots of fun to be with”.

“She leaves us all a wonderful legacy of compelling, insightful social commentary, portraying family dynamics with warmth, intelligence, and a keen eye for human foibles,” he was quoted as saying by The Bookseller magazine.

Trollope was honoured in 2019 by the late Queen Elizabeth II, who made her a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to literature.

– Agence France-Presse