Playwright Henry Ong Set for Trollope Society's GREAT BARSET BALLOONATHON, 2/7

U.S. playwright Henry Ong, author of a stage adaptation of Anthony Trollope's 19th century novel, Rachel Ray, has been selected to participate in The Trollope Society (UK)'s Great Barset Balloonathon.

On February 7, the Trollope Society will release 200 red helium balloons (bearing an Anthony Trollope logo) in London at noon to kick off a series of activities that will celebrate the 200th anniversary of Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope's birthday. Additional balloons will be released around the world at places visited by Trollope during his lifetime, including other places in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Australia and the United States. Ong will release two balloons in Los Angeles, California on February 7 at noon (Los Angeles time).

The finder of the balloon which travels the greatest distance will receive a prize if the label attached to the balloon is returned to The Trollope Society before March 31. The Balloonathon -- one of many activities that includes celebratory dinners, lectures, educational initiatives, book launches, a commemorative stamp issue and exhibitions -- draws attention to the fact that Trollope was one of the most travelled authors of the Victorian era. During his lifetime, he visited Australia, New Zealand, the West Indies, North America, South Africa, Palestine, Egypt, Iceland and many countries in Europe as well as in the United Kingdom, including Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Henry Ong is an internationally-produced playwright whose other credits include Sweet Karma, Madame Mao's Memories; Fabric; The Legend of the White Snake; and People Like Me. He is a member of the Dramatist Guild and The Trollope Society (USA).

For more information on the Balloonathon, contact The Trollope Society, P.O.Box 505, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN2 9RW, United Kingdom or info@trollopesociety.org.

The Trollope Society's mission is to promote the works of Anthony Trollope, one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. A contemporary of Charles Dickens and beloved for his subtle delineation of human character and middle class mores, Anthony Trollope penned 47 novels, three times as many as Dickens. His best-known works include Barcester Towers, one of several in the Chronicles of Barsetshire series revolving around life in the imaginary county of Barsetshire; He Knew He Was Right; and The Way We Live Now. Noted fans have included Sir Alec Guinness (who never traveled without a Trollope novel); former British Prime Ministers Harold Macmillan and Sir John Major; economist John Kenneth Galbraith; and American novelists Sue Grafton and Dominick Dunne.