Trollope’s new war of words with Chelsea neighbours

THE Queen of the Aga Saga Joanna Trollope swapped her Cotswolds home ten years ago for a £3.3 million house in Chelsea because she was fed up with newcomers disrupting her bucolic tranquility.

Now she seems to have tired of London life, and has launched a passionate attack on the capital’s foreign property owners.

‘Part of the problem, depending on where you live, is that there are so many empty houses.

‘We have a lot of foreigners coming here buying houses,’ Trollope, 73, tells me. ‘And that means it’s not buy-to-let any more, it’s buy-to-leave. It’s just a safe place for them to invest their foreign money — but in a way, we’re the ones paying for it.’

‘I usually get on with my neighbours because we have a very lively residents’ association, but that’s quite a rare thing now in London,’ she adds.

‘Most people don’t know their neighbours, which is a shame because it’s great to build a sense of community. I think we’re losing that.’ Trollope was born and raised in Gloucestershire. Her first husband was banker David Potter, with whom she had two daughters, Antonia and Louise. She divorced her second husband, TV dramatist Ian Curteis, in 2001.

Her bestselling novels about rural life include A Village Affair and The Choir, which was adapted into the BBC series starring Jane Asher and James Fox.

Earlier this year she successfully objected to plans by five of her Chelsea neighbours to build matching roof extensions at their homes.

The project would have cost each owner £75,000 to £100,000 and would have increased the value of their properties by 10 to 20 per cent.