Author Joanna Trollope has died aged 82, her family has said.

Trollope was one of the nation’s most widely read authors, having published more than 30 novels during a career that began in the 1970s.

Her novels include “Aga sagas” The Rector’s Wife, Marrying The Mistress and Daughters-in-Law.

In a statement, Trollope’s daughters Antonia and Louise said: “Our beloved and inspirational mother Joanna Trollope has died peacefully at her Oxfordshire home, on December 11, aged 82.”

Her literary agent James Gill said: “It is with great sadness that we learn of the passing of Joanna Trollope, one of our most cherished, acclaimed and widely enjoyed novelists.

“Joanna will be mourned by her children, grandchildren, family, her countless friends and – of course – her readers.”

Trollope was born in Gloucestershire in 1943. She won a scholarship to study at the University of Oxford in the 1960s.

After graduating, she joined the Foreign Office before training as a teacher and then turning to writing full-time in 1980.

The author was best known for her novels set in rural middle England and centred around domestic life and relationships.

Her early historical romances were written under the pseudonym Caroline Harvey, before she turned to contemporary fiction.

Her work tackled a range of topics from affairs, blended families and adoption, to parenting and marital breakdown.

Trollope also took part in The Austen Project, which saw six of Jane Austen’s novels retold by contemporary writers.

She wrote the first book in the series, Sense & Sensibility, published in 2013.

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In 1996, Trollope was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to literature and later made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2019.

She won the Romantic Novel of the Year in 1980 for the book Parson Harding’s Daughter and in 2010 was given a lifetime achievement award from the Romantic Novelists’ Association (RNA) for her services to romance.

She went on to chair a number of award ceremonies, including the Costa Book Awards, formerly the Whitbread Prize, as well as the BBC National Short Story Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction.

Glaswegian comic actor and impressionist Stanley Baxter has died at the age of 99.

Baxter was bold enough to mimic the Pope and even the Queen and sent up his native city with comic routines based on Glaswegian patois.

The Scot received several awards during his career, including a lifetime achievement award at the British Comedy Awards and two TV tribute programmes.

His friend and biographer Brian Beacom said the TV star died on Thursday in a north London care home for entertainment figures.

He had lived in the home, Denville Hall, since late 2023 and was a few months away from celebrating his 100th birthday.

Baxter’s TV shows, in which he often appeared grotesquely in drag, attracted huge audiences and marked him out as one of the funniest, as well as sometimes one of the most controversial, comics of his generation.

Baxter was also popular on the Scottish pantomime circuit, until his retirement in 1991.

Although he did emerge occasionally and briefly from retirement, he largely disappeared from show business and from the public eye.

Baxter was married for 46 years. His wife, Moira died in 1997.

In 2020, he released a co-written biography, The Real Stanley Baxter, which revealed he was gay and had told his wife before they married.

Baxter was born on 24 May, 1926 and started his career as a child actor in the Scottish edition of BBC’s Children’s Hour.

During his National Service, he developed his skills in the Combined Services Entertainment Unit.

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He then returned to Glasgow, and later to London, where he launched a glittering career in television.

He made his debut in the BBC’s Shop Window in 1952, followed by several guest appearances in variety shows.

But it was on the satirical BBC show On The Bright Side (1959) that he was handed his major TV break.

The Stanley Baxter Show (1963-1971) cemented his reputation and propelled him to television stardom.

Baxter also starred in various TV spectaculars, including Stanley Baxter’s Christmas Box.

Among his most successful routines was Parliamo Glasgow, which was conceived as being written by a fictitious scholar visiting the city.

The sketch took the Glasgow patois and developed it to comic effect, such as “sanoffy cold day” for “It’s an awfully cold day”.

After his retirement, he appeared in 2004 in a series of three half-hour sitcoms for BBC Radio 4, entitled Stanley Baxter and Friends.

He also lent his voice to the animated children’s film Arabian Knight and the television series Meeow.

Baxter appeared in a number of films, including Very Important Person (1961), in which he played a fiercely nationalistic Scot.

Other film appearances included Geordie (1955), The Fast Lady (1962) and And Father Came Too! (1963).

Baxter also gained an Outstanding Contribution to Film and Television Award from Bafta Scotland in a digital ceremony in 2020.

Tesla’s US sales have taken a significant hit in November, dropping to just 39,800 units according to new data. This comes as the market adjusts to the expiration of the federal tax credit, despite Tesla’s attempt to mitigate the blow with more discounts.

Since the federal EV tax credit expired at the end of September, the US electric vehicle market has been in a bit of a turmoil. We expected a hangover period after the rush to buy in Q3, but the numbers for November are stark.

According to new estimates from Cox Automotive (via Reuters), Tesla sold approximately 39,800 vehicles in the US in November.

That represents a roughly 23% drop compared to the 51,513 vehicles delivered in November 2024. It is also reportedly Tesla’s lowest monthly sales volume in the US since January 2022.

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It’s important to note that Tesla doesn’t release monthly sales numbers and therefore, those are estimates based on data collected by Cox.

The drop comes despite Tesla’s best efforts to stimulate demand. Following the expiration of the $7,500 federal tax credit, the automaker launched new “Standard” range versions of the Model 3 and Model Y in October, priced roughly $5,000 lower than the previous base models to offset the loss of the incentive.

Those vehicles are expected to start more meaningfully contributing to sales next year.

However, Cox Automotive suggests this strategy could have a minimal impact. Stephanie Valdez Streaty, Cox’s director of industry insights, noted:

“The drop certainly shows there is not enough demand for the Standard variants that were supposed to boost sales after the tax credit expiry. What’s also happening is Standard sales are cannibalizing into sales of Premium versions, especially the Model 3.”

While a 23% drop looks bad on paper, it is worth noting that Tesla is actually weathering the storm better than the rest of the EV market.

Overall US EV sales reportedly plummeted by over 41% in November. Because Tesla’s decline was less severe than its competitors, the company actually saw its market share increase to 56.7%, up from 43.1% a year ago.

Most other automakers relied heavily on the tax credit to move their electric inventory, and without it, they are seeing demand evaporate much faster than Tesla.

Electrek’s Take

It’s sad to see. Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, pushed for this to happen, and he always said that he believed Tesla would fare better than other automakers without the tax credit. He was right. The sad part is that it goes completely against Tesla’s mission to accelerate the advent of electric transportation.

Tesla used US incentives as a ladder to reach volume production, and as soon as it did, it pulled the ladder behind it so others couldn’t use it.

What a shame.

And all for what? To be a bigger fish in a smaller pond? Because that’s only going to work in the US. In Europe and China, Tesla’s sales are declining, while other automakers’ EV sales are surging.