IRELAND AUTHOR · FICTION · GENERAL
Maeve Binchy
Also known as: Maeve Binchy, Maeve Binchy Snell
Maeve Binchy was born on 28 May 1940 in Dalkey, County Dublin, Ireland, the eldest child of four. Her parents were very positive and provided her with a happy childhood. Despite the fact she describes herself as an overweight child it was her parents attitude that gave her the confidence to accept herself for who she is today. She studied at University College Dublin and was a teacher for a while. She also loved travelling and this was how she found her niche as a writer. She liked going to all different kinds of places such as a Kibbutz in Israel and worked in a camp in the United States. It was whilst she was away that she sent letters home to her parents. They were so impressed with these chatty letters from all over the world that they decided to send them to a newspaper. They were published. She left teaching and became a journalist. She still writes columns today. Maeve married Gordon Snell who is also a published writer. When they were struggling financially it was then that Light a Penny Candle was published. She became an overnight success. Her books deal with relationship problems. Many of them are set in the past in Ireland such as "Echoes" and often deal with people who are young, fall in love, have families then have relationship or family problems that readers can identify with. The main characters are people you can empathise with. Some of her later novels have been brought forward to the present day to become more modern. Her cousin Dan Binchy is also a published writer. She passed away on 30 July 2012, at the age of 72.
Nancy was early, but then she always was, and she didn't like being seen there too soon.
— from The Lilac Bus
Most acclaimed
The Glass Lake
An incandescent novel of love, obsession, and the secrets that take root in the human heart, by the author of The Copper Beech and Circle Of Friends. Lough Glass is at the heart and soul of the namesake town clinging to its shore. They say that if you go out on St. Agnes' Eve and look into the lake at sunset you can see your future. But beneath its serene surface, the lake harbors secrets as dark and unfathomable as the beautiful woman who night after night walks beside its waters. Lough Glass is home to Kit McMahon, in a way it will never be to her lovely mother, Helen, who does not fit in with the ways of the people of Lough Glass, and who found an unlikely mate in the genial pharmacist Martin McMahon. Kit adores her mother, but can't escape the picture of her, alone at the kitchen table, tears streaming down her face... or walking alone by the glass lake. Then one terrible night Martin's boat is found drifting upside down in the lake. The night Helen is lost. The night Kit discovers a letter on Martin's pillow and burns it, unopened, in the grate. The night everything changes forever.From the Hardcover edition.
Heart and soul
Michelle McKaslin felt as if a higher power had intervened when she rescued an injured stranger and gave him the job of handyman in exchange for room and board. There was just something about this tough-yet-tender drifter that made her believe she'd actually found the one. Was it too much to hope that she was finally stepping out from the shadow of her four perfect sisters? Jaded undercover agent Gabe Brody had no choice but to investigate Michelle's family in a counterfeiting ring. But as he grew to see the beauty in Michelle's life, it tore him apart to deceive the wholesome woman who rejuvenated his spirit. When the truth surfaced, he would need all of the Lord's blessings to convince Michelle that he loved her, heart and soul!
The Scarlet Feather
A fascinating look at large, diverse Irish families with sub plots and characters from the hard working just getting started to those in the upper echelons with challenges of their own. A delightful book.