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Balancing Act
Susie Moran is a success . She has founded and run her own highly profitable company, and now her three daughters are all involved in the business. Rooted in the traditions of the Stoke-on-Trent potteries, and producing charming, useable objects of distinctive design, Susie is justly proud of her family and her achievement – and has no intention of letting it change.
But what of the men in the family? Susie's husband, a musician and artist, has always seemed happy to take a back seat. One of her sons-in-law has few ambitions outside the home. Another daughter, though, has brought her husband into the company - and they want to change things, much to Susie's distress.
And then, into the mix arrives Susie's father, an ageing hippy who abandoned Susie as a baby. Now he's alone, and wants to build bridges , although Susie's daughters are outraged at the idea. Can the needs of a family business override the needs of the family itself? In wanting to preserve her business, will Susie lose something much more precious?
But what of the men in the family? Susie's husband, a musician and artist, has always seemed happy to take a back seat. One of her sons-in-law has few ambitions outside the home. Another daughter, though, has brought her husband into the company - and they want to change things, much to Susie's distress.
And then, into the mix arrives Susie's father, an ageing hippy who abandoned Susie as a baby. Now he's alone, and wants to build bridges , although Susie's daughters are outraged at the idea. Can the needs of a family business override the needs of the family itself? In wanting to preserve her business, will Susie lose something much more precious?
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
203 people are currently reading
622 people want to read
About the author
Joanna Trollope
132 books604 followersJoanna Trollope Potter Curteis (aka Caroline Harvey)
Joanna Trollope was born on 9 December 1943 in her grandfather's rectory in Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire, England, daughter of Rosemary Hodson and Arthur George Cecil Trollope. She is the eldest of three siblings. She is a fifth-generation niece of the Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope and is a cousin of the writer and broadcaster James Trollope. She was educated at Reigate County School for Girls followed by St Hugh's College, Oxford. On 14 May 1966, she married the banker David Roger William Potter, they had two daughters, Antonia and Louise, and on 1983 they divorced. In 1985, she remarried to the television dramatist Ian Curteis, and became the stepmother of two stepsons; they divorced in 2001.
From 1965 to 1967, she worked at the Foreign Office. From 1967 to 1979, she was employed in a number of teaching posts before she became a writer full-time in 1980. Her novel Parson Harding's Daughter won in 1980 the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association.
Joanna Trollope was born on 9 December 1943 in her grandfather's rectory in Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire, England, daughter of Rosemary Hodson and Arthur George Cecil Trollope. She is the eldest of three siblings. She is a fifth-generation niece of the Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope and is a cousin of the writer and broadcaster James Trollope. She was educated at Reigate County School for Girls followed by St Hugh's College, Oxford. On 14 May 1966, she married the banker David Roger William Potter, they had two daughters, Antonia and Louise, and on 1983 they divorced. In 1985, she remarried to the television dramatist Ian Curteis, and became the stepmother of two stepsons; they divorced in 2001.
From 1965 to 1967, she worked at the Foreign Office. From 1967 to 1979, she was employed in a number of teaching posts before she became a writer full-time in 1980. Her novel Parson Harding's Daughter won in 1980 the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 243 reviews
March 20, 2014
I usually enjoy Joanna Trollope's books with her insights into family life. This one less so. On the positive side, her depiction of the children Maisie and Fred was as vivid as usual for children in her books. They are living creatures who jump off the page.
Also, several phrases that the characters came out with stopped me in my tracks and got me exploring scenarios in my own family life.
On the negative side, I confused the main male characters throughout the book, mixing up Leo and Jasper which didn't help my comprehension.
She over used a favourite phrase of hers, letting a beat fall, till it irritated. She has used this phrase in previous books, but not to this extent.
My main problem was with the short, choppy scenes, like an episode of Eastenders leaping from one scene to another. I just got engaged with the action and, bam, we're taken elsewhere to mix up Leo and Jasper.
The most memorable character was the aggressive Jeff. The argument he had with Grace in the car was so well written.
But otherwise I was glad to finish this book to get on with my next read.
Also, several phrases that the characters came out with stopped me in my tracks and got me exploring scenarios in my own family life.
On the negative side, I confused the main male characters throughout the book, mixing up Leo and Jasper which didn't help my comprehension.
She over used a favourite phrase of hers, letting a beat fall, till it irritated. She has used this phrase in previous books, but not to this extent.
My main problem was with the short, choppy scenes, like an episode of Eastenders leaping from one scene to another. I just got engaged with the action and, bam, we're taken elsewhere to mix up Leo and Jasper.
The most memorable character was the aggressive Jeff. The argument he had with Grace in the car was so well written.
But otherwise I was glad to finish this book to get on with my next read.
November 7, 2016
This is the first Joanna Trollope novel I have read in a long time. The story centres on Susie Moran, who founded and runs a successful pottery company. Her three daughters, Cara, Ashley and Grace, and one son in law, Daniel, are all involved in the highly profitable business. But change is imminent and Susie does not like change, especially when it mean relinquishing control, because Susie is quite simply a control freak.
The characters in the story are well portrayed and complex. Yet, although I found it quite a mostly enjoyable read, I did have trouble relating to the characters. Maybe that says as much about me as it does the characters in this novel. There were a couple that really annoyed me. Jeff was obnoxious and I struggled to see what Grace had ever seen in him. I also felt sorry for Jasper, Susie’s husband while at the same time wishing he’d grow some backbone. Ashley’s and Leo’s two children, and in particular Maisie, are brats. The arrival of Susie’s father who she hasn’t seen since he and her mother abandoned her as a young child, leaving her with her grandparents, only serves to add to the upheaval in the family dynamics. An interesting exploration of characters but not as good as some other Joanna Trollope books I’ve read.
The characters in the story are well portrayed and complex. Yet, although I found it quite a mostly enjoyable read, I did have trouble relating to the characters. Maybe that says as much about me as it does the characters in this novel. There were a couple that really annoyed me. Jeff was obnoxious and I struggled to see what Grace had ever seen in him. I also felt sorry for Jasper, Susie’s husband while at the same time wishing he’d grow some backbone. Ashley’s and Leo’s two children, and in particular Maisie, are brats. The arrival of Susie’s father who she hasn’t seen since he and her mother abandoned her as a young child, leaving her with her grandparents, only serves to add to the upheaval in the family dynamics. An interesting exploration of characters but not as good as some other Joanna Trollope books I’ve read.
June 20, 2014
I am a big fan of Joanna Trollope and have all her books so I was looking forward to this one. It turned out to be a pleasant read with her usual variety of characters and a reasonably interesting story. However it certainly was not one of her best. I felt I must have missed the point somewhere as I could not understand what Susie had actually done to deserve what happens to her. As this is the focus of the entire book it is probably understandable that I came away from reading it feeling a bit unenthusiastic.
April 17, 2020
Abandoned about a third of the way through. Life’s too short to waste any more time on this one.
January 29, 2015
I have been a fan of Joanna Trollope for a very long time , but feel very let down by this one. Her characters are usually so well drawn and memorable but no-one in this bunch of dreary whingers stayed with me at all.
I simply couldn't work out why they were all so boring and negative. Even the token bad boy Jeff just sort of fizzled out without really living up to his reputation.
To me they all seemed to be terminally depressed and I couldn't undetstand why. Ultimately I didn't care.
I did quite like Jasper and felt a bit sorry for him surrounded by such appallingly self obsessed and introspective women.
Joanna Trollope usually does children quite well but she reached a new low with the appalling Maisie.
I also had an issue trying to place these characters in time and location.
The London and Stoke locations weren't well enough drawn for me to build a mental picture of them and the characters didn't seem to belong in today's world.
I must also agree with several other reviewers on Amazon about the very repetetive writing that I certainly didn't expect from an author of JT's experience.
I won't give up on Joanna Trollope. I have been reading and enjoying her for too long to let one bad experience put me off, but I shall approach her next novel with far more caution.
I simply couldn't work out why they were all so boring and negative. Even the token bad boy Jeff just sort of fizzled out without really living up to his reputation.
To me they all seemed to be terminally depressed and I couldn't undetstand why. Ultimately I didn't care.
I did quite like Jasper and felt a bit sorry for him surrounded by such appallingly self obsessed and introspective women.
Joanna Trollope usually does children quite well but she reached a new low with the appalling Maisie.
I also had an issue trying to place these characters in time and location.
The London and Stoke locations weren't well enough drawn for me to build a mental picture of them and the characters didn't seem to belong in today's world.
I must also agree with several other reviewers on Amazon about the very repetetive writing that I certainly didn't expect from an author of JT's experience.
I won't give up on Joanna Trollope. I have been reading and enjoying her for too long to let one bad experience put me off, but I shall approach her next novel with far more caution.
September 17, 2014
I once had a shirt. Back in the day I 'owned' this shirt – denim, with brass buttons – that I loved to wear. Its material had been softened by years of detergent washings and it fitted me to a tee. Of course, back then, I was leaner; tauter too. I figured in that shirt I looked as good as it was possible for me to look. Really, though, I had no fashion sense in the old century – still don't in this new one. I have no idea who purchased it for me as I rarely buy clothes for myself, but I wore it for years till it came apart at the seams. It felt comfortable. It felt good – it suited me just fine. I could be myself in it.
It was Joanna Trollope's new offering that set me thinking about that shirt I wore and wore and wore. Her new book has that same comfortable feel about it. You know what to expect and she rarely lets you down. That shirt never let me down. She might write to a type of formula but it works. When she departs from it – well, she sort of comes apart at the seams too. With 'Balancing Act' she's on song.
It is a novel of generational change – something those of us of the baby-boomer years know something of. As we hand over to X, Y and even Z, we have to find a new way forward for ourselves. Sometimes in doing so we may come a cropper, but it can be exciting too.
But that is not what Susie Moran is all about – handing it over. She is so blinkered she cannot see that the world she so once had a handle on has now changed markedly – what worked in the past is so passé in the new ways of doing life stuff. Yes, she's extremely successful, her pottery business is the bee's knees and still popular with the public – so if it ain't broke.... She was deserted as a child by a mother and father who ran away to Africa rather than raise her, but she single-handedly took over the family business. This she re-energised and became quite the career woman, despite finding the time to produce, but not raise herself, three daughters. This she left to her laid-back, jobbing-musician hubby, Jasper.
The daughters have now all grown up and are involved in the business. Cara and her partner Daniel run the financial side and are constantly on the look out to change the way it's all done – arousing Susie's intractability. Ashley, married to relief teacher Leo, is involved on the marketing side and is struggling with the work/home balance. The youngest, Grace, is into design and is struggling with a prat of a boyfriend in the self-centred Jeff. They, in the past, have all deferred to Susie when it comes to the crunch, but the worm is about to turn. They are tiring quickly of the 'balancing act' – they want to break free. It only needs a trigger.
It comes when an old man returns to the fold and he's most unwelcome – Susie's long lost eighty-plus father, Morris.
Trollope, as always, is entirely at home with these sort of events as she charts the various protagonists' courses to the ultimate confrontation and denouement. It's all so effortless for her and she takes us, her readers, along for an enjoyable ride, turning the pages eagerly till we discover how it all pans out for the Morans.
As long as she sticks to what she knows, Trollope will never set the literary world on fire. But, on the other hand, it is important to also keep one's legion of loyal fans buying your next product – and largely she does. There's no pyrotechnics with her narratives – it's just good writing that sits comfortably, that feels just right. It's writing that suits me just fine – the same as that old blue denim shirt of mine.
May 4, 2014
Finished reading “Balancing Act” by Joanna Trollope. May 2014
Back to her usual fare after her “Sense and Sensibility” fiasco. Another easy read, but not quite as enjoyable as most of her others. The family dynamics were interesting and credible as things unravelled before re-grouping to produce the 'happy ever after' ending. But in spite of that – or perhaps because of the 'happy ever after' ending in particular - the characters didn't quite ring true. The female characters are basically strong, all earning money, of course. Given their supposed strength, it was hard to believe that the father of the matriarch was welcomed so readily back to the fold having abandoned his daughter soon after birth, with virtually no contact since.
The husband of the matriarch and father of their three daughters is portrayed as weak until, in his 'more mature' years, he toughens up and starts performing at paid gigs again with his band. He had been a 'stay at home' dad while his wife made the family fortune. Is that why 'stay at home' mothers are also considered weak and lack respect? Is parenting not considered valuable? You are only of value if you earn money? You'd have thought a woman writer would not downgrade parenting like that.
All the same, I'll be back for more Trollope.
Back to her usual fare after her “Sense and Sensibility” fiasco. Another easy read, but not quite as enjoyable as most of her others. The family dynamics were interesting and credible as things unravelled before re-grouping to produce the 'happy ever after' ending. But in spite of that – or perhaps because of the 'happy ever after' ending in particular - the characters didn't quite ring true. The female characters are basically strong, all earning money, of course. Given their supposed strength, it was hard to believe that the father of the matriarch was welcomed so readily back to the fold having abandoned his daughter soon after birth, with virtually no contact since.
The husband of the matriarch and father of their three daughters is portrayed as weak until, in his 'more mature' years, he toughens up and starts performing at paid gigs again with his band. He had been a 'stay at home' dad while his wife made the family fortune. Is that why 'stay at home' mothers are also considered weak and lack respect? Is parenting not considered valuable? You are only of value if you earn money? You'd have thought a woman writer would not downgrade parenting like that.
All the same, I'll be back for more Trollope.
August 22, 2017
There was something in this book that I actually found offensive. I was looking forward to reading it as I could see it was about a family that had three daughters and I am one of three daughters so I always enjoy stories that have this family set up. However, once I got into the book I found it was less about the family unit and more about women’s roles and men’s roles.
You would think a book written by a female author and published in 2014 would have a modern day attitude but I found that women were continually punished in the book for working rather than staying home and looking after the children. And even if they had a husband who stayed at home and did everything that a ‘traditional’ mother would do, it still isn’t enough and basically the mother is resented right into adulthood.
I really took issue with this message when I was reading this book and I can’t believe the author has written it intending for that to be the message but that was what I was getting across – that you cannot be a mother and a full time worker. Even when Ashley decides to do the same thing, her husband then says she can no longer have any say in what happens at home at all – that would never be the same if he was the one working.
What was additionally frustrating about this book, was that the male characters were rewarded for their selfish choices. Susie’s dad abandoned her as a child and did not bother to tell her when her mother had died or come back to her grandparent’s funeral, yet we’re meant to feel sorry for him and feel like Susie owes him something?! And Jasper, who has sponged off Susie his whole life and always said he never minded being a stay at home dad, suddenly resents her for it and demands they sell their house – that would never be considered ok if their gender roles had been reversed.
I have given this two stars as I did find it interesting and read it easily enough but I did not agree with the content at all.
You would think a book written by a female author and published in 2014 would have a modern day attitude but I found that women were continually punished in the book for working rather than staying home and looking after the children. And even if they had a husband who stayed at home and did everything that a ‘traditional’ mother would do, it still isn’t enough and basically the mother is resented right into adulthood.
I really took issue with this message when I was reading this book and I can’t believe the author has written it intending for that to be the message but that was what I was getting across – that you cannot be a mother and a full time worker. Even when Ashley decides to do the same thing, her husband then says she can no longer have any say in what happens at home at all – that would never be the same if he was the one working.
What was additionally frustrating about this book, was that the male characters were rewarded for their selfish choices. Susie’s dad abandoned her as a child and did not bother to tell her when her mother had died or come back to her grandparent’s funeral, yet we’re meant to feel sorry for him and feel like Susie owes him something?! And Jasper, who has sponged off Susie his whole life and always said he never minded being a stay at home dad, suddenly resents her for it and demands they sell their house – that would never be considered ok if their gender roles had been reversed.
I have given this two stars as I did find it interesting and read it easily enough but I did not agree with the content at all.
January 30, 2015
Although it has the theme of the family business I am finding it a bit disjointed
September 23, 2020
Well......I'm not sure what to say. I've never read anything by Joanna Trollope before and probably won't again. Her style of writing was like no other I'd come across before. It took me a while to adjust and start reading it like scenes from a tv series as it skipped from one scenario and characters to another and back mid chapter. I thought her characters and storytelling way of writing was really good. Although the characters in the family were set all over the country, for me this particular novel went nowhere. I was waiting for something to happen.......any kind of drama but there was none. Just very well written descriptions of a family working together and what they did next. Not enough oomph for me so I give it 3 stars.
December 18, 2022
I always enjoy reading Joanna Trollop’s novels as they deal with family life. This one deals with a family business. Susan brought up by her grandparents after having been abandoned by her parents starts up in the pottery business. She runs the company successfully with her three daughters but there is an undercurrent as the daughters and respective husbands want to move on and have more say in the running of the business- then Morris, her father, suddenly turns up on the doorstep. Things begin to unravel as they each try and find their way forward. The characterisation is good though very middle class.
December 21, 2024
[This article was first published in Catalonia Today magazine, June 2015.]
Here is a blatantly upper middle-class British family. They work together in a pottery-making business and this is the story of what happens to them in an eventful period of change in all of their lives.
Joanna Trollope, a former chair of the UK's Orange Prize for books, has recently made the mainstream news with her comments criticising UK literary festivals for their commercialism. She has said that she "feared festivals patronised audiences and created a hierarchy of ‘fame’ - paying celebrities to attend and treating some fiction authors with a lack of respect."
In this book, her most recent of twenty titles, she shows a talent for describing awkward social relationships - the silences, pauses and hesitations - that can be typical of interactions among people, especially those of the constant tea-drinking kind that she has chosen to focus solely on.
The author has a genuine feel for England, that dreary England with its love of order in the nest: in this case a quaint, cottagy, decorative, pastoral land with ever-present flowers and the soothing effect of patterns and comfy sofas. Most of all there is the dream of quiet "dignity" - a word that is pretentiously repeated in the book. These are all elements of apparently-charismatic mother-hen Susie's business. Her daughters and their men-folk have, until now, fitted into the flow of her company.
But dramas are a-coming of course. What would a book of this type be without some push and pull between family members?
Here, there are nanny problems and Susie's husband is moving out to restart his music career. Most of all, the arrival in town of Morris, her long-estranged father complicates the scene for everyone. Eventually, Morris is redeemed with a sensitivity that to me was not credible but what is believable though is that the other fathers in the story are both modern and involved with the care of their children.
This is without doubt literature that is targeted at women readers but the males in the story are never set-up as whipping boys or fall-guys. In fact, the female characters are largely career-minded and the power struggles in the company are theirs.
For me this book doesn't really deliver what I look for in a novel. Even after rereading parts of it to give it a chance to find something that touches me or grabs me, I was disappointed by the ordinariness of the characters and their interactions. When I put my energy into a book I want to have my preconceptions challenged and I want to learn new things about the species that I am a part of.
A good book (whether it´s fiction or non-fiction) sits you down and shakes you up with subtlety or with a sledgehammer: we come to know the insides of the main protagonists, as if they were in fact a newly-discovered part of ourselves. Unfortunately, Balancing Act locates itself in the middle and doesn't sway toward any uplifting extremities.
[http://www.bretthetherington.net/defa...]
Here is a blatantly upper middle-class British family. They work together in a pottery-making business and this is the story of what happens to them in an eventful period of change in all of their lives.
Joanna Trollope, a former chair of the UK's Orange Prize for books, has recently made the mainstream news with her comments criticising UK literary festivals for their commercialism. She has said that she "feared festivals patronised audiences and created a hierarchy of ‘fame’ - paying celebrities to attend and treating some fiction authors with a lack of respect."
In this book, her most recent of twenty titles, she shows a talent for describing awkward social relationships - the silences, pauses and hesitations - that can be typical of interactions among people, especially those of the constant tea-drinking kind that she has chosen to focus solely on.
The author has a genuine feel for England, that dreary England with its love of order in the nest: in this case a quaint, cottagy, decorative, pastoral land with ever-present flowers and the soothing effect of patterns and comfy sofas. Most of all there is the dream of quiet "dignity" - a word that is pretentiously repeated in the book. These are all elements of apparently-charismatic mother-hen Susie's business. Her daughters and their men-folk have, until now, fitted into the flow of her company.
But dramas are a-coming of course. What would a book of this type be without some push and pull between family members?
Here, there are nanny problems and Susie's husband is moving out to restart his music career. Most of all, the arrival in town of Morris, her long-estranged father complicates the scene for everyone. Eventually, Morris is redeemed with a sensitivity that to me was not credible but what is believable though is that the other fathers in the story are both modern and involved with the care of their children.
This is without doubt literature that is targeted at women readers but the males in the story are never set-up as whipping boys or fall-guys. In fact, the female characters are largely career-minded and the power struggles in the company are theirs.
For me this book doesn't really deliver what I look for in a novel. Even after rereading parts of it to give it a chance to find something that touches me or grabs me, I was disappointed by the ordinariness of the characters and their interactions. When I put my energy into a book I want to have my preconceptions challenged and I want to learn new things about the species that I am a part of.
A good book (whether it´s fiction or non-fiction) sits you down and shakes you up with subtlety or with a sledgehammer: we come to know the insides of the main protagonists, as if they were in fact a newly-discovered part of ourselves. Unfortunately, Balancing Act locates itself in the middle and doesn't sway toward any uplifting extremities.
[http://www.bretthetherington.net/defa...]
February 1, 2015
Hmm! I probably didn't do myself or Joanna Trollope any favours after reading this so soon after Daughters in Law, which I love. To be honest I don't think Balancing Act is one of her best. I struggled to engage with the characters and found Susie's relationship with her husband to be under-developed. The author had done a lot of research about The Potteries and the whole process of making pottery but at the beginning I felt that all of this information got in the way of the story and slowed the pace a little. The whole family business thing didn't really resonate with me either. I have been closely involved with two family business and know there can be tensions but the way the relationships between mother and daughters were played out didn't quite ring true.
This is all very negative but I did finish it unlike quite a few other people whose reviews I have read. It won't stop me reading another Joanna Trollope but I would hesitate to recommend it. There are better books which she has written. My edition had a cover of balancing teacups and I did like that!
This is all very negative but I did finish it unlike quite a few other people whose reviews I have read. It won't stop me reading another Joanna Trollope but I would hesitate to recommend it. There are better books which she has written. My edition had a cover of balancing teacups and I did like that!
December 15, 2014
It's sixteen years since I last read a Joanna Trollope novel. I've changed a lot since then. Learnt to write novels of my own. So it came as a bit of a shock to realise that these novels a) haven't changed one iota in all that time and b) that they lack veracity. I find it shocking that I might to some extent have been using them to inform my view of how family life ought to go.
That said, of course, Joanna Trollope earns a living from her novels whereas I very certainly do not.
But it was depressing how very able this family was to have well-scripted conversation after conversation with no misunderstanding, no stuttering, no saying the wrong thing while meaning something completely other. And I've returned to the one I'm writing to make sure they are more human.
That said, of course, Joanna Trollope earns a living from her novels whereas I very certainly do not.
But it was depressing how very able this family was to have well-scripted conversation after conversation with no misunderstanding, no stuttering, no saying the wrong thing while meaning something completely other. And I've returned to the one I'm writing to make sure they are more human.
November 30, 2014
Does anyone know whether this was published before 2014? I picked it up in a bit of a daze at the airport on Friday and could have sworn that I read it some time ago. It could be, though, that her books are becoming very formulaic- most of her books seem to feature three adult, middle class children and spouses/kids living in the modern working world who have to deal with an errant, ageing parent who everyone gets cross with. I used to love Trollope but I think she has lost her touch- the characters' voices are just not authentic anymore. Quite honestly, it's all getting a bit predictable and dull.
September 20, 2015
I am a long term fan of Joanna Trollope, but hadn't read one of her books for a long time when i picked up this one. I have to say that sadly it doesn't match up to her earlier books. The characters are real and interesting and solid, but I was bemused to find that as I finished the book, I was still waiting for the story to start - it finishes in a flurry of cliches and predictability and just goes nowhere as if she's run out of time or inclination to write. A shame as I think the family (characters generally) in the book could become the basis for a pretty compelling trilogy........
May 27, 2014
A really disappointing offering from Joanna Trollope after the brilliant Soldier's Wife? It was featured self indulgent spoilt characters and isn't worth bothering with
February 6, 2021
3.5
I flew through this book, and found myself emotionally invested in the story and the characters, to the extent that I rang my sister to give out about them as soon as I’d finished, as if there were real people, which is exactly what I want from a book.
However, on a couple of occasions the writing didn’t ring true for me. There are two scenes, one after another, in which couples have deep conversations while involved in domestic tasks, and I just didn’t buy it. There was some very sloppy foreshadowing when Grace is thinking about the grandfather she’s never met, and he suddenly appears a little further down the page. There is a scene in which two of the sisters are in bed together, drinking tea, and one of them is described as rolling over to face the other. What about the tea? It’s such a small thing, but it took me out of the book as I puzzled over the logistics of that move.
I found the behaviour of all of them objectionable at times, but that’s what makes a book true to life. In two cases, however, the characters behaved in ways that were, to my mind, despicable, and the author seemed to condone them. That really bothered me, and bothers me generally in books.
This was my first Joanna Trollope read, and I’d definitely be interested in reading more.
I flew through this book, and found myself emotionally invested in the story and the characters, to the extent that I rang my sister to give out about them as soon as I’d finished, as if there were real people, which is exactly what I want from a book.
However, on a couple of occasions the writing didn’t ring true for me. There are two scenes, one after another, in which couples have deep conversations while involved in domestic tasks, and I just didn’t buy it. There was some very sloppy foreshadowing when Grace is thinking about the grandfather she’s never met, and he suddenly appears a little further down the page. There is a scene in which two of the sisters are in bed together, drinking tea, and one of them is described as rolling over to face the other. What about the tea? It’s such a small thing, but it took me out of the book as I puzzled over the logistics of that move.
I found the behaviour of all of them objectionable at times, but that’s what makes a book true to life. In two cases, however, the characters behaved in ways that were, to my mind, despicable, and the author seemed to condone them. That really bothered me, and bothers me generally in books.
This was my first Joanna Trollope read, and I’d definitely be interested in reading more.
August 23, 2025
I found this slow to begin with and not really sure where it was going. I found regularly throughout questioning where it was really going. But it was simple, nice, basic. An exploration in to family life and work. Where the families are challenged to look at their relationship inside and outside of work, but also the gender norms in today’s society and how it gets passed down through generations. A nice little read.
January 24, 2016
I have never read anything by Joanna Trollope before; although I went through a phase of spectacularly enjoying Anthony Trollope, I formed the impression that Joanna Trollope was not going to scratch the same itch. If Balancing Act is typical of her work, she doesn't.
Since the narrator is fairly omniscient, early on I figured that I was supposed to accept the point of view that only ambitious business people are truly worthwhile, and people who have other goals and priorities are obviously lazy and hopeless. I was prepared for everything to take an extremely Randian turn, especially when Susie's father turned up alive, widowed, and a filthy hippie who disgusted everyone with whom he came into contact, except for the odious Jeff who was willing to use him to further his own ends. (I say filthy more as a Homeric epithet for hippies than as an actual attribute of the father, Morris, since as it turns out he seems to be quite clean.)
The main characters in the book are Susie, the founder of a pottery business that has expanded into some sort of empire that I (as a North American) interpreted as Martha-Stewartish, her three daughters, and some men they are married to or otherwise connected to. Susie and her daughters all work for the business in different roles, as does the eldest daughter's husband. Susie's husband is an unambitious and unsuccessful musician who has been content to let Susie be the breadwinner. Eldest daughter and eldest daughter's husband are walking business textbooks. Middle daughter is also hardworking and ambitious but a bit frazzled, because her husband is kind of lackadaisical and we are briefly made to worry that he is thinking of leaving their marriage because he's some kind of lazy loser who can't tolerate criticism. Youngest daughter is more artistic but has stupidly started dating someone FROM THE INTERNET who appears to have no redeeming features other than alleged good looks. Trollope didn't take the trouble to make him seem sympathetic for even one moment, or even to give us any reason to understand why Grace would put up with him for any length of time. Surely if Grace was going to dither about whether or not to break up with him we should have at least been able to feel what she thought she saw in him. Instead we were treated to scene after scene of his ridiculously and obviously unpleasant behaviour and her displeasure with it. There were some descriptions of his background and information that he seemed reluctant to share that made me wonder if he was going to turn out to be a con artist, but no -- apparently he was just an unsatisfactory boyfriend put in place to prolong the question of whether Grace could do better.
The middle sister's husband redeemed himself early on by deciding that he was going to become a house husband and let the middle sister cast off her frazzledness so she could devote her full attention to the office. And this may have been where we parted ways with the Randian ideal by demonstrating that domestic work is not a Taking activity when it bolsters an all-important Maker. Much is made of the middle sister's young children, and in fact without them she could not have been as successful at work as she becomes, because her Big Idea for achieving the company goals of expansion as dictated by the eldest sister's husband is to use her children as the models for a new catalogue.
The eldest sister and her husband don't want to have children, and at first I thought we were being set up for a reversal where the eldest sister might get pregnant and the conflict would come from which of them would embrace the situation most readily. It wasn't clear to me whether the husband was supposed to be entirely justified in the resentment he had for his own upbringing and his estrangement from his sisters. But as the book went on and it turned out that Susie was to be judged for having neglected her children in favour of the business, it seemed as if the logic was that the pottery business was really about Family, and Cara and Dan were just interested in the business side of things and not the Family, so it was best that they work for a soulless business with no family entanglements and leave the Family business to the middle daughter Ashley with her adorable toddlers and house husband.
The youngest daughter is less business-oriented but still suitable for the Family business because she is both creative and also aware of what is possible with pottery. Susie is inclined to just propose designs because they look nice, but Grace is able to point out that X won't work because it will be structurally unsound. It gradually becomes clear that once she is bold enough to dump the bad boyfriend Jeff, Neil Dundas, the worthy plant manager, will be hers for the taking.
I thought it was a strange choice from a dramatic point of view that a pivotal confrontation between Grace and Susie was reported in the third person by Grace to her sisters instead of depicted as an actual scene in the book. And actually the romance between Grace and Neil was handled even more obliquely -- Grace admits that she and Neil are going hiking but is coy about whether they are an item. And there is also a conversation with Neil where it seems to be implied that maybe there were some tender passages between them on a previous occasion that I couldn't place.
Since the narrator is fairly omniscient, early on I figured that I was supposed to accept the point of view that only ambitious business people are truly worthwhile, and people who have other goals and priorities are obviously lazy and hopeless. I was prepared for everything to take an extremely Randian turn, especially when Susie's father turned up alive, widowed, and a filthy hippie who disgusted everyone with whom he came into contact, except for the odious Jeff who was willing to use him to further his own ends. (I say filthy more as a Homeric epithet for hippies than as an actual attribute of the father, Morris, since as it turns out he seems to be quite clean.)
The main characters in the book are Susie, the founder of a pottery business that has expanded into some sort of empire that I (as a North American) interpreted as Martha-Stewartish, her three daughters, and some men they are married to or otherwise connected to. Susie and her daughters all work for the business in different roles, as does the eldest daughter's husband. Susie's husband is an unambitious and unsuccessful musician who has been content to let Susie be the breadwinner. Eldest daughter and eldest daughter's husband are walking business textbooks. Middle daughter is also hardworking and ambitious but a bit frazzled, because her husband is kind of lackadaisical and we are briefly made to worry that he is thinking of leaving their marriage because he's some kind of lazy loser who can't tolerate criticism. Youngest daughter is more artistic but has stupidly started dating someone FROM THE INTERNET who appears to have no redeeming features other than alleged good looks. Trollope didn't take the trouble to make him seem sympathetic for even one moment, or even to give us any reason to understand why Grace would put up with him for any length of time. Surely if Grace was going to dither about whether or not to break up with him we should have at least been able to feel what she thought she saw in him. Instead we were treated to scene after scene of his ridiculously and obviously unpleasant behaviour and her displeasure with it. There were some descriptions of his background and information that he seemed reluctant to share that made me wonder if he was going to turn out to be a con artist, but no -- apparently he was just an unsatisfactory boyfriend put in place to prolong the question of whether Grace could do better.
The middle sister's husband redeemed himself early on by deciding that he was going to become a house husband and let the middle sister cast off her frazzledness so she could devote her full attention to the office. And this may have been where we parted ways with the Randian ideal by demonstrating that domestic work is not a Taking activity when it bolsters an all-important Maker. Much is made of the middle sister's young children, and in fact without them she could not have been as successful at work as she becomes, because her Big Idea for achieving the company goals of expansion as dictated by the eldest sister's husband is to use her children as the models for a new catalogue.
The eldest sister and her husband don't want to have children, and at first I thought we were being set up for a reversal where the eldest sister might get pregnant and the conflict would come from which of them would embrace the situation most readily. It wasn't clear to me whether the husband was supposed to be entirely justified in the resentment he had for his own upbringing and his estrangement from his sisters. But as the book went on and it turned out that Susie was to be judged for having neglected her children in favour of the business, it seemed as if the logic was that the pottery business was really about Family, and Cara and Dan were just interested in the business side of things and not the Family, so it was best that they work for a soulless business with no family entanglements and leave the Family business to the middle daughter Ashley with her adorable toddlers and house husband.
The youngest daughter is less business-oriented but still suitable for the Family business because she is both creative and also aware of what is possible with pottery. Susie is inclined to just propose designs because they look nice, but Grace is able to point out that X won't work because it will be structurally unsound. It gradually becomes clear that once she is bold enough to dump the bad boyfriend Jeff, Neil Dundas, the worthy plant manager, will be hers for the taking.
I thought it was a strange choice from a dramatic point of view that a pivotal confrontation between Grace and Susie was reported in the third person by Grace to her sisters instead of depicted as an actual scene in the book. And actually the romance between Grace and Neil was handled even more obliquely -- Grace admits that she and Neil are going hiking but is coy about whether they are an item. And there is also a conversation with Neil where it seems to be implied that maybe there were some tender passages between them on a previous occasion that I couldn't place.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 31, 2021
Another really solid read by Joanna Trollope. All of the main characters were likeable, even though some had moments of infuriating behaviour. I enjoyed spending time in the company of four strong, determined and ambitious women. Deducting a star for Grace's relationship with Jeff, as it didn't seem entirely plausible.
April 29, 2025
I haven’t read Joanna Trollope for a while. It was her classic style, probably not her best, thought provoking but not in a really personal manner. I didn’t particularly like any of the female characters and the men all seemed to have ‘light bulb’ moments to become the guiding force of their women. It was a pleasant holiday read and I can happily abandon the book for someone else.
February 5, 2020
Too much dialogue: he said, she said. However, it was clear that the author had done good research into pottery companies, their methods and also the marketing of the products. Jasper, the father, was the most interesting character...
Why the Sunday Times found it to be brilliant, I do not know. It was a little boring.
Why the Sunday Times found it to be brilliant, I do not know. It was a little boring.
November 14, 2021
This story picked apart the dynamics within an adult family, something which could have been insightful and dynamic. Instead I found it wishy washy and bland. For me a disappointing read.
October 8, 2023
Family, and some, mixed with business, family owned. A great read in less than 24 hours I was driven to read more. Well put together situation with great characters. It would make a good TV series with all the characters, situations and back ground tensions, I would watch it.
January 19, 2024
Disappointing! I loved her earlier books but this one was not as entertaining. Too many characters, got a bit confusing! I enjoyed the beginning & the end of the book but the middle I found boring, quite a slog!
February 19, 2015
What is a bestseller?
What is a bestselling author?
And how do these things relate to the reader's enjoyment of a book?
And what is the purpose of a book - is it to entertain? Is it to inform? Is it to engage and stimulate the imagination, the senses, someone's core? Is it to shift us forward as human beings in some way or another?
And to bestselling authors do this better than anyone else? Or should that read, do they do it "best"?
This is a best selling book. For a fair few months now, as I write, it has been in most bestselling lists. So, it has sold really well - a lot of people will have bought it - many of them will have read it as well.
But let's be honest - an author earns the title "bestselling" for previous books. Although there's every chance that an author who has written a bestselling book in the past may write one again in the future - there's no guarantee.
And sadly, this book by Joanna Trollope is a perfect example of this. Novels such as "A Village Affair", "The Choir" and "The Rector's Wife" are some of the best known - and best selling - works in a bibliography of well over 20 novels she's written since the 1970's.
This novel does pretty much what it says on the tin - it looks at the lives of four women as they try to balance their business success with their family lives. Trouble is, it's all a little bit predictable, it's all a little bland, nothing much happens. Too many of the characters are, frankly cliched and boring - too many others are simply indistinguishable from one another.
It's an easy enough read - and that's not just for the large typeface, which is very welcome - but it has an easily digestible writing style - the style that bestselling authors write in.
Was this a complete waste of 4 or 5 nights of my reading life? Hmmm... I suspect that it's one of those books that, in a few weeks time, I won't be able to recall a single character, or a single story development line from it. But on the up side, it's made me have a bit of a rant about the validity, authenticity and general usefulness or otherwise of the term "bestseller", so I suppose reading it had some sort of positive outcome. But I have to be honest - for the last 100 pages or so, I was desperate to get to the end of it... so that I could say...
Next please!
What is a bestselling author?
And how do these things relate to the reader's enjoyment of a book?
And what is the purpose of a book - is it to entertain? Is it to inform? Is it to engage and stimulate the imagination, the senses, someone's core? Is it to shift us forward as human beings in some way or another?
And to bestselling authors do this better than anyone else? Or should that read, do they do it "best"?
This is a best selling book. For a fair few months now, as I write, it has been in most bestselling lists. So, it has sold really well - a lot of people will have bought it - many of them will have read it as well.
But let's be honest - an author earns the title "bestselling" for previous books. Although there's every chance that an author who has written a bestselling book in the past may write one again in the future - there's no guarantee.
And sadly, this book by Joanna Trollope is a perfect example of this. Novels such as "A Village Affair", "The Choir" and "The Rector's Wife" are some of the best known - and best selling - works in a bibliography of well over 20 novels she's written since the 1970's.
This novel does pretty much what it says on the tin - it looks at the lives of four women as they try to balance their business success with their family lives. Trouble is, it's all a little bit predictable, it's all a little bland, nothing much happens. Too many of the characters are, frankly cliched and boring - too many others are simply indistinguishable from one another.
It's an easy enough read - and that's not just for the large typeface, which is very welcome - but it has an easily digestible writing style - the style that bestselling authors write in.
Was this a complete waste of 4 or 5 nights of my reading life? Hmmm... I suspect that it's one of those books that, in a few weeks time, I won't be able to recall a single character, or a single story development line from it. But on the up side, it's made me have a bit of a rant about the validity, authenticity and general usefulness or otherwise of the term "bestseller", so I suppose reading it had some sort of positive outcome. But I have to be honest - for the last 100 pages or so, I was desperate to get to the end of it... so that I could say...
Next please!
February 27, 2014
A review copy was provided by Gill Hess and Transworld in return for an honest review:
Release Date: 27/02/2014
Balancing act is a book that shows why you should never ever work with your family or close friends!
Susie Sullivan was abandoned as a baby and raised by her grandparents. Despite an unconventional up bringing she has grown to become a successful business woman
She is not only the name behind Susie Sullivan pottery. She is the life blood, the driving force behind the company that she started from the ground up. Susie Sullivan is now a household name. Her pottery is sitting in homes across the world. Life seems to be idyllic until her long lost father shows up
His arrival seems to trigger a shift in Susie's world. All of a sudden her daughters are not happy with playing second fiddle in a business they work hard for. Her husband is feeling estranged from her. They rarely spend time in the house together. He gets more attention from the parrot for gods sake!
While I understood Susie's love her company I found myself frustrated with her controlling behaviour. Her inability to let go blinds her to opportunities to grow the business even further. She is so focused on keeping the business the same at it's heart that she alienates those who should be closest to that heart, her family.
Although the book lacked suspense and was fairly slow paced It was certainly a comforting read. Perfect with a coffee on a rainy evening after a long days work.
Release Date: 27/02/2014
Balancing act is a book that shows why you should never ever work with your family or close friends!
Susie Sullivan was abandoned as a baby and raised by her grandparents. Despite an unconventional up bringing she has grown to become a successful business woman
She is not only the name behind Susie Sullivan pottery. She is the life blood, the driving force behind the company that she started from the ground up. Susie Sullivan is now a household name. Her pottery is sitting in homes across the world. Life seems to be idyllic until her long lost father shows up
His arrival seems to trigger a shift in Susie's world. All of a sudden her daughters are not happy with playing second fiddle in a business they work hard for. Her husband is feeling estranged from her. They rarely spend time in the house together. He gets more attention from the parrot for gods sake!
While I understood Susie's love her company I found myself frustrated with her controlling behaviour. Her inability to let go blinds her to opportunities to grow the business even further. She is so focused on keeping the business the same at it's heart that she alienates those who should be closest to that heart, her family.
Although the book lacked suspense and was fairly slow paced It was certainly a comforting read. Perfect with a coffee on a rainy evening after a long days work.
August 31, 2016
I am a great fan of Joanna Trollope's and have read most of her books. This is not one of the best. It tells the story of a family run business, and of Susie and her daughters who run it. Susie is convinced that she and she alone knows how to best run things, the girls have different ideas. Throw in a long lost father and some romantic action and there you have it. I thought it was similar in tone and story to Daughters-in-law. If you like Joanna Trollope, and enjoy this sort of English domestic drama this might be for you, but I would recommend some of her earlier works over this.
December 21, 2014
I've read a few of Joanna Trollope's books and always found them engaging and page-turning, but this one was more of a trial. I kept thinking, 'In a page or two, I'm bound to get more interested' and when the long-lost father turned up, I was hopeful. But although some of the scenes are written well, I think the book needed a better general edit to tighten it up, and I found some of the characters tedious if not annoying. The portrayal of the house-husband scenario was good, but overall I think this might have one of her least effective novels.
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