Whitethorn Woods

Maeve Binchy

Maeve Binchy was born in Dublin and came to fame first as London Correspondent for the Irish Times. Her first novel, Light A Penny Candle made her famous in the UK and USA.

She says of her upbringing. ‘My memory of my home was that it was very happy, and that there was more fun and life there than there was anywhere else. My mother could do all kinds of things, like take a bone out of your throat if it got stuck and you were choking, or clean out a turkey on Christmas Eve when it arrived far from oven-ready. She could take out splinters and cure headaches and get the grocer to deliver her a packet of Gold Flake by giving a list of other items as well and asking if it could be brought up to the house soon because she was in a hurry for the cornflour. Our house was ten miles from Dublin City where we all went to University and then to work. Ten miles is near enough to live at home, and just a little too near to get a flat unless there was some bad feeling. And there was no bad feeling.’

She says of herself. “I was the big bossy older sister, full of enthusiasms, mad fantasies, desperate urges to be famous and anxious to be a saint. A settled sort of saint, not one who might have to suffer or die for her faith. I was terrified that I might see a Vision like St Bernadette or the Children at Fatima and be a martyr instead. My school friends accused me of making this up but I never looked up into trees in case I saw Our Lady beckoning to me.”

She lives in Dublin with her husband, Gordon Snell.

Fellow novelist SOPHIE KING on MAEVE BINCHY

I was only a teenager when I discovered Maeve and I've always loved her books but the one that sticks out in my mind is Evening Class. It's told from the point of view of different characters - which is what I do in my own books. It's a wonderful way of getting into the characters' heads and also to move the plot along.