Maeve Binchy

Maeve Binchy
Born	28 May 1940 (1940-05-28) (age 71) Dalkey, County Dublin, Ireland
Occupation	Novelist
Nationality	Irish
Notable work(s)	Circle of Friends
maevebinchy.com

Maeve Binchy (born 28 May 1940 Dalkey, County Dublin)^[1][2] is an Irish novelist, newspaper columnist and speaker. Educated at University College Dublin,^[1][2] she worked as a teacher^[2][3] then a journalist at The Irish Times^[2] and later became a writer of novels and short stories.

Many of her novels are set in Ireland, dealing with the tensions between urban and rural life, the contrasts between England and Ireland, and the dramatic changes in Ireland between World War II and the present day.

Her novel Circle of Friends was made into a 1995 Hollywood movie starring Chris O'Donnell and Minnie Driver with a radical change of ending.^[4]

Binchy announced in 2000 that she would not be going on tours with any more novels, but would be devoting her time to other activities, and to her husband, Gordon Snell, a children's author. She has written five further novels since then — Quentins, Nights of Rain and Stars, Whitethorn Woods, Heart and Soul and Minding Frankie (2010). She lives in Dalkey, not far from where she grew up.^[5]

In 1978, Binchy won a Jacob's Award for her RTÉ play, Deeply Regretted By. A second award went to the lead actor, Donall Farmer. A 1993 photograph of her by Richard Whitehead belongs to the collection of the National Portrait Gallery (London)^[6] and a painting of her by Maeve McCarthy, commissioned in 2005, is on display in the National Gallery of Ireland.^[7]

She is sister of William Binchy, Regius Professor of Laws at Trinity College, Dublin.

Themes

While some novels are complete stories (Circle of Friends, Light a Penny Candle) many of her novels revolve around a cast of interrelated characters (The Copper Beech, Silver Wedding, The Lilac Bus, Evening Class, Heart and Soul). Her later novels, Evening Class, Scarlet Feather, Quentins, and Tara Road, feature a continuum of recurring characters..

Bibliography

Novels ^[5]

• Light a Penny Candle (1982)
• Echoes (1985)
• Firefly Summer (1987)
• Silver Wedding (1988)
• Circle of Friends (1990)
• The Copper Beech (1992)
• The Glass Lake (1994)
• Evening Class (1996)
• Tara Road (1998)
• Scarlet Feather (2000)
• Quentins (2002)
• Nights of Rain and Stars (2004)
• Whitethorn Woods (2006)
• Heart and Soul (2008)
• Minding Frankie (2010)

Short story collections ^[5]

Binchy has also published several short story collections, including:

• Central Line (1978)
• Victoria Line (1980)
• Dublin 4 (1981)
• London Transports (1983)
• The Lilac Bus (1984)
• Story Teller: Collection of Short Stories (1990)
• Dublin People (1993)
• Cross Lines (1996)
• This Year It Will Be Different: And Other Stories (1996)
• The Return Journey (1998)

Other works

• Star Sullivan (2006) (a novella)^[5]
• The Builders (2002)(a novella)^[5]
• Deeply Regretted By (a play)^[5]
• Aches and Pains (1999) (non-fiction)^[5]
• A Time to Dance (2006) (non-fiction)^[5]
• The Maeve Binchy Writer's Club (2008) (non-fiction)^[5]
• Finbar's Hotel (contributor)
• Ladies Night at Finbar's Hotel (contributor)
• Irish Girls About Town (2002) (editor with Cathy Kelly and Marian Keyes).

See also

• Maeve (Irish name)

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Encyclopedia Britannica entry on Maeve Binchy
2. ^ ^{a b c d} Guardian Unlimited Books
3. ^ An interview with Jana Siciliano for BookReporter.com
4. ^ Circle of Friends at IMDB.com
5. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Maeve Binchy's Official Site
6. ^ National Portrait Gallery: Maeve Binchy.
7. ^ National Gallery unveils portrait of Maeve Binchy, National Gallery of Ireland, October 2005.

External links

• Maeve Binchy's Official Site
• An interview with Jana Siciliano for BookReporter.com

Persondata
Name	Binchy, Maeve
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	28 May 1940
Place of birth	Dalkey, County Dublin, Ireland
Date of death
Place of death