In detail

Joanna Trollope has earned something of a reputation for her examination of contemporary domestic dilemmas. In Girl from the South she turns her attention to a younger generation, exploring the emotional legacy bequeathed by parents to their children, the modern preoccupation with romantic love and the consequences of freedom. Set partly against the backdrop of traditional close-knit family life in the American South and partly in London’s flat land, the novel follows the lives of a group of single young people, each trying to find their way to fulfilment in an ever more complicated world.

Bloomsbury have produced a reading group guide for Girl from the South, from which you'll find the discussion points listed below. All page numbers refer to the Bloomsbury edition of the book. If you would like a free printed version of the reading guide sent to you, please e-mail us.

To see this and other Bloomsbury reading group guides, including one for Marrying the Mistress by Joanna Trollope, and to join in on our discussion boards on these and other books, as well as to find out about how to set up a reading group, please click here.

For discussion

• How important to the book is the concept of the American South as a place of traditional values? Which characters would you describe as typically Southern? Would you include Gillon in your list?
  
  
• Gillon, Tilly, Susie, Ashley and Paula reveal different aspects of the dilemmas facing young women. How does the way each of them leads her life differ from Sarah, or from Martha and Margot? How different are the American women from the British?
  
  
• Freedom is a recurrent theme in the book. William replies to Henry’s suggestion on page 52 that they are all indecisive with “I think we’ve just all got too much to decide. Too much freedom.” Tilly echoes this on page 242 in the conversation with her boss which begins “We’re supposed to have so much choice, aren’t we?” Do you think that excess freedom poses a problem for the characters in the book and if so how does it influence their lives? In contrast, Teddy describes living in Charleston as “life in a gilded cage” (page 22) and Henry urges Cooper to “Step out of the cage and see” (page 298). Do you think this is an appropriate image for life in Charleston? Is freedom, or the lack of it, one of the fundamental differences between the two sets of characters?
  
  
• Central to the book is Henry’s inability to commit to the next ‘grown-up’ stage in his relationship with Tilly but is it only Henry or does Tilly’s failure to be entirely open with him also suggest an inability to move on? Failure to commit has come to be seen as a male trait; does the novel take this stance?
  
  
• On page 217 Margot says to Tilly, “Love is a gift. Loyalty is a gift. Commitment is a demand. Quite different.” Do you agree? What do you make of her suggestion that couples travel on “parallel lines” rather than together? Is this borne out by any other characters’ relationships?
  
  
• On page 53 William quotes Tilly as saying “girls learn to be attracted to men they love ... men learn to love women they’re attracted to”. Does this prove to be the case for the characters in the book? What do you think of Tilly’s idea?
  
  
• Gillon feels sometimes irritated, sometimes suffocated but always firmly attached to her family whereas the three main British characters are cast adrift from theirs. Henry seems almost to fall in love with the entire Stokes clan. What does the book have to say about the family in contemporary Britain? Is Gillon’s family so perfect? How have older generations influenced the lives of the younger characters and, in particular, their relationships?
  
  
• What do you make of the relationship that Gillon and Henry forge for themselves? Do you find it satisfying or disappointing and what are your reasons? Do you think it stands a better chance of success than Henry’s relationship with Tilly?
  
  
• Henry seems to have come into his own by the end of the book. What is it that has brought this about? Have Tilly and Gillon achieved a similar state?

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