Maeve Binchy Biography

Maeve Binchy was born on 28 March 1940 in Dublin and raised in Dalkey where she still lives. The eldest child of a lawyer and a nurse, Maeve received her education at the Holy Child Convent in nearby Killiney.  From there she went on to earn herself a BA (Bachelor of Arts Degree) in History from University College Dublin. In the years after she graduated she taught in several schools for girls and wrote stories during her summer holidays.

In 1969 one of her stories earned her a job writing a column in the Irish Times and her career as a writer officially began. She became an editor and moved to London.  There she met her husband, Gordon Snell, a presenter for the BBC and author of children's books.  Binchy retired from writing in 2000, after the publication of her last novel, The Scarlett Feather but it looks now (2002) that she may return to it.

Maeve Binchy's books have put her name on the top 10 of Britain's most popular writers, not to mention the New York Times' Bestseller List.  Considered a true Irish storyteller, Binchy's novels touch on issues such as parent-child relationships and the illusion of love. However, Binchy's romance novels do not focus entirely on sex, but their appeal, instead, stems from the author's creation of the ordinary, identifiable characters who love and sometimes loose. Maeve Binchy remains without a doubt one of the most popular Irish novelists of the 20th Century, Maeve Binchys novels of Irish romance have won over audiences all over the world. 

Works:

Aches and Pains
Tara Road
Evening Class
The Copper Beech
The Lilac Bus
Firefly Summer
Silver Wedding
The Glass Lake
The Return Journey
This Year It Will Be Different
This Year It Will Be Different: And Other Stories
Circle of Friends
Light a Penny Candle
Echoes
London Transports
The Return Journey
Maeve Binchy's Dublin Four
Scarlett Feather

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Quotes:

"It was easy to say that your world was compartmentalized. But in real life it wasn't easy." - From "Circle of Friends"

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