- He didn't have a great childhood. His father, Thomas, a failed barrister, tried farming, but failed at that, too. An expected inheritance didn't materialise because a childless uncle re-married and had some children. In the end, the whole family had to flee to Belgium to escape the debt collectors. Despite the lack of money, Thomas wanted his son to go to a good school. To save on fees, he attended school as a day boy. Possibly because of the lack of money, young Anthony was bullied at school and contemplated suicide when he was twelve. Anthony coped by escaping into daydreams, and constructing complex imaginary worlds.
- His mother wrote travel books. While the family were living in Belgium, they lived on her earnings.
- Anthony was offered a job as a clerk in the General Post Office, and returned to London to take up the post when he was nineteen. He worked for the Post Office until he was in his fifties, and earning enough from his writing to allow him to retire.
- Most of the time, he hated working for the Post Office, and it showed. He was often late for work and had a reputation for insubordination. He was in debt himself by now, and was harassed at work by money lenders. He felt trapped in a job he hated, needing the money to pay off his debts, and constantly fearing that he'd be fired.
- Things got better when a vacancy arose in Ireland. It wasn't seen as a desirable position, but Trollope hated his job so much that he volunteered to go anyway. His supervisor gave him the job because he wanted to be rid of him. The cost of living in Ireland wasn't so high and so the money troubles eased. The position gave him a new start - his new boss decided to ignore the bad references he brought with him and judge him on merit. His new job involved a certain amount of travel which he enjoyed - he soon began using train journeys for writing. A trip to Salisbury for work inspired the first of his Barsetshire novels. He is even credited with some Post Office history - he introduced the Pillar Box to Britain when they were trialled on the island of Jersey in 1854.
- He was a prolific writer, setting strict targets as to how much he would write every day. Since he was combining writing with a day job, this involved getting up at 5.30 every morning and writing for three hours before going to work. He wrote 250 words every 15 minutes, pacing himself with a watch. If he finished a novel within his three hour writing time, he'd immediately start another.
- As well as making a living from writing, he had another ambition - to become an MP. However, working for the Post Office made him a civil servant and therefore not eligible to stand. Once he'd retired, he was eligible and so began looking for a seat to stand for. In 1868, he agreed to stand as a Liberal candidate in the borough of Beverley, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. He came last in the election, and hated campaigning. He described it as "the most wretched fortnight of my manhood", and went back to his writing.
- He married Rose Heseltine after a long engagement, necessary because neither of them had any money. One of their sons emigrated to Australia and became a sheep farmer. Trollope went to visit in 1871, and spent two years down under. Needless to say, he wrote a novel during the voyage. The press in Australia were uneasy, however, afraid he would write negative things about Australia. What he did write about Australia was mostly positive, although he did criticise a few things.
- While reading a comic novel Vice Versa, by F. Anstey, he laughed so much it gave him a stroke, from which he never recovered, and died a month later at the age of 67.
- Fans of his work have included Elizabeth Gaskell, Virginia Woolf, Harold Macmillan, J. K. Galbraith, Tolstoy, Henry James, PD James and Queen Victoria.
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