Joanna Trollope is the author of twenty highly acclaimed and bestselling novels, including The Rector's Wife, Marrying the Mistress and Daughters in Law. She was appointed OBE in 1996, and a trustee of the National Literacy Trust in 2012. She has chaired the Whitbread and Orange Awards, as well as being a judge of many other literature prizes; she has been part of two DCMS panels on public libraries and is patron of numerous charities, including Meningitis Now, and Chawton House Library. In 2014, she updated Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility as the opening novel in the Austen Project. City of Friends is her twentieth novel.

Joanna Trollope's novels address the issues and emotional journeys that face women today. In this, her 20th novel, she turns a sharp and reflective eye upon four friends in their workplaces . . . As the novel progresses, each woman is forced to question herself and to ask what really matters. How important is work? How much more do women have to put up with in the workplace than men? What price transparency, especially among friends? The author addresses all these questions with her customary insight and wisdom, depicting the characters with warmth and psychological veracity, drawing the reader deep into their lives