BESTSELLING author Joanna Trollope has attacked Government cuts to libraries, saying they are “the lifeblood of the community”.

The novelist, 67, said library services are “the only thing that should not be cut”.

She told the WHT: “It is important to save people’s health, but libraries save people’s sanity”.

She made the comments on a visit to Welwyn Garden City Library, in Campus West, on Wednesday, as part of Hertfordshire Libraries’ Litfest series, where she gave a talk and promoted her new book Daughters-in-Law.

On her new bestselling novel, she said: “It does what it says on the tin – it is about daughters-in-law.

“It centres on three women between their late-20s and late-30s and their relationship with their mother-in-laws, and how they react to letting their sons go.

“It is written from everyone’s point of view.

“A primary school teacher told me that mothers love their daughters but they are in love with their sons.

“The book is about who wins – because in a way somebody has got to and what it is like to be the man in the middle.”

She said the book is set near the sea in Suffolk and in Shoreditch, East London, and one of the main characters is a bird painter.

This gave Trollope an opportunity to enthusiastically absorb much about ornithology.

“I learned a great deal about birds while I was researching this.

“That is why it [the book] has got seagulls on the cover,” she said.

Speaking about her “full on” visit to WGC, she said: “I’m always absolutely delighted to do events in a library, because they are the lifeblood of the community.

“They’re incredible resources for all kinds of people and librarians really are a race apart – they’re lovely people.”

Likening librarians to therapists for the population at large, she added: “They fulfil an incredibly difficult role.”