The Victorian man of letters who changed Ireland

Non-fiction: Writing The Frontier Anthony Trollope etween Britain and Ireland By John McCourt. Oxford University Press, €69.30. Reviewed by Dermot Bolger.

Anthony Trollope: Ireland gave him a fresh start
Anthony Trollope: Ireland gave him a fresh start

Occasionally a writer can be identified as a catalyst for bringing about real change to the lives of a nation. No 19th century novelist was a greater instrument of social change in Ireland than Anthony Trollope. This is not for his “Irish” novels – written during two decades among us – but for the organisational skills he employed during his unglamorous career as the Post Office official ...