The author Joanna Trollope was born in Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire, in 1943. She grew up in Surrey and was educated at Dunottar School and Reigate County School for Girls. She won a scholarship to study English at St Hugh's College, University of Oxford in 1961. After graduating, Joanna worked for the Foreign Office before becoming an English teacher. She married David Potter in 1966 (divorced 1983) and the couple had two children.

While still working as a teacher, Joanna began writing historical fiction. She had become a full-time author by 1980, the year her novel Parson Harding's Daughter was awarded the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association. Joanna published her only non-fiction title, Britannia's Daughters, in 1983.

Joanna married her second husband, the dramatist and television director Ian Curteis (1935-2021), in 1985 (divorced 2001).

During the 1980s, Joanna's writing evolved to contemporary fiction and The Rector's Wife (1991), which was adapted for television in 1994, was her first number one bestseller. Her earlier novels were reissued under a pseudonym, Caroline Harvey, that she had previously used for romantic fiction.

Joanna has also written pieces for anthologies, newspapers, and magazines. In 2010, she was awarded the Romantic Novelists' Association Lifetime Achievement Award.

Joanna was Deputy Lieutenant for Gloucestershire 2002-2004. She was awarded an OBE in 1996 and a CBE in 2019.