Book at Beachtime: Daughters-in-Law by Joanna Trollope

Editor's note: You can catch up with each episode of the Radio 4 Extra adaptation of Daughters-in-Law on the website for seven days after it's first broadcast.

I am always thrilled to bits to have a novel of mine serialised on the radio. I don't know if it's generational, but there's something deeply sympathetic about a radio adaptation, and it always feels very close to the spirit of a book. So - hooray!, is what I thought, when I heard that Daughters-in-Law had been chosen for Radio 4 Extra.

I chose this theme for the novel, because it is universal. Whether actually married or not, everyone in any kind of relationship has to deal, in some way, with their partner's parents and family, and that dealing involves the kinds of priorities and loyalties that make for dramatic fictional tension.

I wanted to look at those loyalties and priorities from everyone's point of view - the mother who has been a terrific Mother of Sons, but can't face letting go, the young daughters-in-law, who have their own desires and rightful claims, the men caught in the middle, the father of all those boys, the children...

And then let the reader decide for her or himself where their own identification lies.

Joanna Trollope is the author of Daughters-in-Law

• Book at Beachtime is on Radio 4 Extra from June 20th at 2.30pm and runs from Monday to Friday for 4 weeks. You can also listen online on the Radio 4 Extra website.
• Read the producers of Book at Beachtime's blog post on the series
• Read more entries tagged "book" on the Radio 4 and 4 Extra blog