Joanna Trollope is famed for her family dramas, which always feature contemporary social issues, flawed characters and tangled relationships.

Her bestselling novels include The Rector’s Wife, Marrying The Mistress and Other People’s Children, along with her reworking last year of Jane Austen’s Sense & Sensibility.

Her latest book, Balancing Act, about a family pottery business founded by matriarch Susie who employs her three daughters in the firm, throws up all sorts of complications.

One of the interesting social issues she raises is that of women being the main breadwinners and husbands staying at home to look after the children.

Her research took her to Stoke-on-Trent, home of Emma Bridgewater pottery, on which she bases the fictional firm. But she also spoke to many successful women.

She said: “Very few of them were with men who couldn’t handle their success.”

Trollope, who brought up her two daughters with her first husband, banker David Potter, while juggling a career in teaching and later writing, says that the choices are so much greater for women these days — and they should be allowed to choose their path without being made to feel guilty.

In Balancing Act, one of the characters happily becomes a house husband looking after their children while his ambitious wife follows her dreams.

Trollope says that house husbands today are increasingly seen as the norm. The shift between her own generation and that of her daughters and two stepsons has been massive, she points out.

“The father of my children still proudly boasts that he’s never changed a nappy. I don’t think that’s anything to be proud of.”

After writing five books in five years, Trollope — who recently donated her handwritten manuscripts to the Bodleian Library — will be delivering the next one in two years, and is involved in a number of literacy projects, but there’s no thought of retirement.

* Joanna Trollope will speak at the Chipping Norton Literary Festival on April 27. Box office 01608 642350 or book online at chippingnortontheatre.com