Maeve Binchy

Anne Maeve Binchy Snell (28 May 1939 – 30 July 2012) was an Irish novelist, playwright, short story writer, columnist, and speaker. Her novels were characterised by a sympathetic and often humorous portrayal of small-town life in Ireland, and surprise endings. Her novels, which were translated into 37 languages, sold more than 40 million copies worldwide. Her death at age 73, announced by Vincent Browne on Irish television late on 30 July 2012, was mourned as the death of one of Ireland's best-loved and most recognisable writers. Recognised for her "total absence of malice" and generosity to other writers, she finished third in a 2000 poll for World Book Day, ahead of Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and Stephen King. Her uncle was the historian D. A. Binchy (1899–1989). Educated at St Anne's (then located at No 35 Clarinda Park East), Dún Laoghaire, and later at Holy Child Killiney, she went on to study at University College Dublin (where she earned a bachelor's degree in history). She worked as a teacher of French, Latin, and history at various girls' schools, then as a journalist at The Irish Times,

In 1968, her mother died of cancer at age 57. After Binchy's father died in 1971, she sold the family house and moved to a bedsit in Dublin.

Israel/Faith

Her parents were Catholics, and Binchy attended a convent school. However, a trip to Israel profoundly affected both her career and her faith. She later said to Vulture:

<blockquote>In 1963, I worked in a Jewish school in Dublin, teaching French with an Irish accent to kids, primarily Lithuanians. The parents there gave me a trip to Israel as a present. I had no money, so I went and worked in a kibbutz – plucking chickens, picking oranges. My parents were very nervous; here I was going out to the Middle East by myself. I wrote to them regularly, telling them about the kibbutz. My father and mother sent my letters to a newspaper, which published them. So I thought, It's not so hard to be a writer. Just write a letter home. After that, I started writing other travel articles.</blockquote>

One Sunday, attempting to locate where the Last Supper is supposed to have occurred, she climbed a mountainside to a cavern guarded by a Brooklyn-born Israeli soldier. She wept with despair. The soldier asked: "What'ya expect, ma'am – a Renaissance table set for 13?" She replied: "Yes! That's just what I did expect". This experience caused her to renounce her Catholic faith, and eventually become agnostic.

Marriage

Binchy, described as "six feet tall, rather stout, and garrulous", After her mother's death, she expected to lead a life of spinsterhood, saying "I expected I would live at home, as I always did." She continued, "I felt very lonely, the others all had a love waiting for them and I didn't."

Health

In 2002, Binchy suffered health problems related to a heart condition, which inspired her to write Heart and Soul. The book, about what Binchy terms "a heart failure clinic" in Dublin and the people involved with it, reflects many of her own experiences and observations in the hospital. Towards the end of her life, Binchy's website stated "My health isn't so good these days and I can't travel around to meet people the way I used to. But I'm always delighted to hear from readers, even if it takes me a while to reply." As a result of the arthritis she had a hip operation. A month before her death she suffered a severe spinal infection (acute discitis), Gordon was by her side when she died in a Dublin hospital. Fellow writers mourned their loss, including Ian Rankin, Jilly Cooper, Anne Rice, and Jeffrey Archer. Politicians also paid tribute. President Michael D. Higgins stated: "Our country mourns." Minister of State at the Department of Health Kathleen Lynch, appearing as a guest on Tonight with Vincent Browne, said Binchy was, for her [Lynch's] money, as worthy an Irish writer as James Joyce or Oscar Wilde, and praised her for selling so many more books than they managed.

In the days after her death, tributes were published from such writers as John Banville, Roddy Doyle, and Colm Tóibín. Banville contrasted Binchy with Gore Vidal, who died the day after her, observing that Vidal "used to say that it was not enough for him to succeed, but others must fail. Maeve wanted everyone to be a success." Numerous tributes appeared in publications on both sides of the Atlantic, including The Guardian and CBC News.

Shortly before her death, Binchy told The Irish Times: "I don't have any regrets about any roads I didn't take. Everything went well, and I think that's been a help because I can look back, and I do get great pleasure out of looking back ... I've been very lucky and I have a happy old age with good family and friends still around." Just before dying, she read her latest short story at the Dalkey Book Festival.

As a baptised Catholic, Binchy was given a traditional Requiem Mass notwithstanding her agnosticism. Her Requiem Mass took place at the Church of the Assumption, in her hometown of Dalkey. She was later cremated at Mount Jerome Cemetery and Crematorium.

Work

Journalism

The New York Times reports: Binchy's "writing career began by accident in the early 1960s, after she spent time on a kibbutz in Israel. Her father was so taken with her letters home that "he cut off the 'Dear Daddy' bits," Ms. Binchy later recounted, and sent them to an Irish newspaper, which published them." later reporting for the paper from London before returning to Ireland.

Literature

In all, Binchy published 16 novels, four short-story collections, a play, and a novella. A 17th novel, A Week in Winter, was published posthumously. Her literary career began with two books of short stories: Central Line (1978) and Victoria Line (1980). She published her debut novel Light a Penny Candle in 1982. In 1983, it sold for the largest sum ever paid for a first novel: £52,000. The timing was fortuitous, as Binchy and her husband were two months behind with the mortgage at the time. However, the prolific Binchy – who joked that she could write as fast as she could talk – ultimately became one of Ireland's richest women.

Her first book was rejected five times. She would later describe these rejections as "a slap in the face [...] It's like if you don't go to a dance you can never be rejected but you'll never get to dance either".

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

Binchy announced in 2000 that she would not tour any more of her novels, but would instead be devoting her time to other activities and to her husband, Gordon Snell. Five further novels were published before her death: Quentins (2002), Nights of Rain and Stars (2004), Whitethorn Woods (2006), Heart and Soul (2008), and Minding Frankie (2010). In 2014 a collection of 36 unpublished short stories that she had written over a period of decades was published under the title Chestnut Street.

Binchy wrote several dramas specifically for radio and the silver screen. Additionally, several of her novels and short stories were adapted for radio, film, and television. She received an initial 5,000 Irish pounds for Light a Penny Candle.

In 1999, Binchy appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show. In 2009, she appeared on The Meaning of Life, also presented by Gay Byrne. Binchy and her husband had a cameo appearance together in Fair City on 14 December 2011, during which the couple dined in The Hungry Pig.

Awards and honours

In 1978, Binchy won a Jacob's Award for her RTÉ play, Deeply Regretted By. A 1993 photograph of her by Richard Whitehead belongs to the collection of the National Portrait Gallery and a painting of her by Maeve McCarthy, commissioned in 2005, is on display in the National Gallery of Ireland.

In 1999, she received the British Book Award for Lifetime Achievement. In 2000, she received a People of the Year Award. In 2001, Scarlet Feather won the W H Smith Book Award for Fiction, defeating works by Joanna Trollope and then Booker winner Margaret Atwood, amongst other contenders.

In 2007, she received the Irish PEN Award, joining writers including John B. Keane, Brian Friel, Edna O'Brien, William Trevor, John McGahern and Seamus Heaney.

In 2010, she received a lifetime achievement award from the Irish Book Awards.

Posthumous

There were posthumous proposals to name a new Liffey crossing "Binchy Bridge" in memory of the writer. Ultimately the bridge was named for trade unionist Rosie Hackett.

In September 2012, a new garden behind the Dalkey Library in County Dublin was dedicated in memory of Binchy.

In 2014, University College Dublin announced the first annual Maeve Binchy Travel Award. The €4000 award will help student winners "pursue a novel travel trip to enhance their writing skills".

List of works

Publications

Binchy published novels, non-fiction, a play and several short story collections. Two collections of short stories, Chestnut Street (2014) and A Few of the Girls (2015), were released after her death.

;Novels

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)
A Week in Winter (2012)

;Short story collections

;Non-fiction

My First Book (1970). Dublin: The Irish Times, Ltd. ()
Aches and Pains (1999)
The Half Promised Land (1980)
Tara Road (2005) – Hollywood film starring Olivia Williams and Andie MacDowell and based on Binchy's sixth novel, Tara Road (1998) – which was adopted as an Oprah's Book Club selection in September 1999.
Echoes (1988) – four-part television miniseries on Channel 4, based on Binchy's second novel, Echoes (published in 1985).
Maeve Binchy's Anner House (2007) – 90-minute TV movie, filmed in Cape Town, that aired on RTÉ Television. The film stars Liam Cunningham, Flora Montgomery, and Conor Mullen, and is based on a short story by Binchy. The screenplay was written by Anne-Marie Casey.

References

In season 3 episode 7 of Ballykissangel, one road worker tosses a book to another, saying: "The latest Maeve Binchy!"

External links

Maeve Binchy profile at The Irish Times , accessed 25 February 2015.