The Return Journey

About Maeve Binchy

Maeve Binchy (1940 - 2012) was born in County Dublin and educated at the Holy Child convent in Killiney and at University College, Dublin. After a spell as a teacher she joined the Irish Times. Her first novel, Light a Penny Candle, was published in 1982 and she went on to write over twenty books, all of them bestsellers. Several have been adapted for cinema and television, most notably Circle of Friends and Tara Road. Maeve Binchy received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the British Book Awards in 1999 and the Irish PEN/A.T. Cross award in 2007. In 2010 she was presented with the Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award at the Irish Book Awards by the President of Ireland.

Binchy, who was 72, has sold more than 40 million books to date, translated into 37 languages. She lived in Dalkey all her life and was married in 1977 to the children's writer Gordon Snell. Her last book carries the dedication: "To Gordon -- who makes life great every single day."

Maeve’s final book A Week in Winter published after her death in 2012 was the winner of the Popular Fiction Prize at the Irish Book Awards.

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.

Click here to download an article from the Irish Independent about Maeve Binchy.

Click here to download an article from The Belfast Telegraph about Maeve Binchy.