Girl From The South

Nov 29, 2025 5:09 AM

Author:Joanna Trollope

Girl From The South

Multi-million copy bestselling author Joanna Trollope's sharp eye for family relationships and the intricacies of being human will appeal to readers of Erica James, Elizabeth Noble and Amanda Prowse. Full of her customary wit and wonderfully sharp characterisation, Girl from the South is an enthralling novel you won't be able to put down.

'She writes so beautifully...' -- Evening Standard

'Joanna Trollope is a wonderful novelist of domestic detail... Girl From the South is, like all her books, a really good read, spiked with insight' -- Observer

'Finely-observed family tensions' -- Sunday Mirror

'At the heart of Trollope's tightly written, acutely observed novel is what it means to be a family' -- New Statesman

'Couldn't stop reading it' -- ***** Reader review

'[I] was really sorry to get to the end of it' -- ***** Reader review

'Absorbing. Loved it' -- ***** Reader review

'A must read' -- ***** Reader review

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CAN LONG-TERM HOPES AND DREAMS HOLD FAST IN THE FACE OF AN EXOTIC WIND OF CHANGE?

Gillon - red-haired, intelligent, vulnerable - comes to London to escape from the demands of her wealthy, conventional, socially superior family in Charleston, South Carolina. An art historian, she has a chance meeting with Tilly, whose long-term boyfriend Henry is a wildlife photographer who is finding it hard to commit.

Before long Gillon has moved into their flat, replacing Henry's old mate William, William's on-off-girlfriend Susie, and a lots of mess and disorganisation. Things are changing, and Tilly finds it difficult to accept that her dreams of settling down with Henry are receding further into the distance, especially when Henry announces that he is going to South Carolina to photograph the abundant wildlife of the area.

There, Henry is wholly seduced by the charms of Charleston, by Gillon's family, and by the old patrician way of life which presents itself. The rules seem to be changing, the time passing by, and the future is becoming less and less certain...

Reviews

She writes so beautifully... in a style so graceful and judicious that you would call it restful if it were not also palpably intelligent

—— Evening Standard

Joanna Trollope is a wonderful novelist of domestic detail... Girl From the South is, like all her books, a really good read, spiked with insight

—— Observer

Finely-observed family tensions

—— Sunday Mirror

At the heart of Trollope's tightly written, acutely observed novel is what it means to be a family

—— New Statesman

This is a novel about the modern affairs of the heart. It explores the dilemmas of men who won't commit themselves and women who yearn for sublime romantic love

—— Daily Mail

[Trollope writes] with such elegant precision - revelatory and ambiguous at just the right moments

—— Evening Standard

A cruelly funny book... most astute observation

—— Daily Telegraph

Subtle and delicate

—— The Sunday Times

La Ronde for the new century

—— Independent

A marvel- beautifully written, surprisingly moving, quietly rather brilliant

—— Harry Ritchie , Daily Mail

While Malouf's chief interest is in the human impulses that lie behind the epic deeds, he remains faithful to the beliefs and values of the ancient world

—— Edmund Gordon , Times Literary Supplement

immensely moving, modern novel

—— Elizabeth Speller , Independent

A dignified performance ... in writing this novel Malouf is honouring a great work and also making a great work of his own ... his graceful fiction deals in truth and is always beautiful

—— Eileen Battersby , Irish Times

Beautifully written and very moving, Ransom is a reimagining that respects Homer's original while expanding expertly on its themes.

—— Alastair Mabbott , Herald

Malouf captures the moving humanity of Priam's grief

—— Robert Collins , Sunday Times

Lyrical reworking of the final scenes of The Iliad

—— Metro

This superb novel goes by in a heartbeat, so smooth and engrossing is David Malouf's prose...It is a touching tale, full of pain, but rendered beautifully by Malouf's humanity

—— Lesley McDowell , Independent on Sunday

An audacious reworking of Homer's Iliad.

—— Holly Kyte , Sunday Telegraph

David Malouf...has given Homer's epic fresh life in this haunting mood piece...a graceful, eloquent text dominated by rage and sorrow

—— Eileen Battersby , Irish Times

This novel explores the timeless motifs of epic, in miniature

—— The Times

You know it ends in death, and so do Malouf's haunted protagonists, but this telling, at once unfussy and wonderfully poetic, breathes warm life into a great epic

—— James Smart , Guardian

Breathtaking skill...an extraordinary emotional charge.

—— Colm Toibin , Guardian, Christmas round up

A finely honed, writerly and wise revisiting of one of the most famous episodes in The Iliad, when Priam the King of Troy goes to bring home the body of his dead son Hector. No-one in prose has managed to better Malouf's imaginative recreation of the Homeric world.

—— Robert Crawford , Sunday Herald, Christmas round up

a potent new yarn... Beautifully written in simple language freighted with meaning, Ransom explores a king's impulse to act as a mourning father.

—— James Urquhart , Financial Times

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