Maeve Binchy

Maeve Binchy is an Irish novelist, columnist and speaker. She is best known for her humorous take on small-town life in Ireland, her descriptive characters, her interest in human nature and her often clever surprise endings. Maeve Binchy was born on 28 May 1940 in Dalkey, County Dublin, Ireland, the eldest child of four. She is sister of William Binchy, Regius Professor of Laws at Trinity College, Dublin. She is cousin of the also writer Dan Binchy. Her uncle was the historian D. A. Binchy . She married the also writer Gordon Snell, a children's author. They live in Dalkey, not far from... where she grew up. Educated at University College Dublin, she worked as a teacher then a journalist at The Irish Times and later became a writer of novels and short stories. She published her debut novel Light a Penny Candle in 1982. 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.
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