Binchy, Maeve (1940- ), short-story writer and novelist; born in Dublin and educated at UCD. Beginning as a teacher, she became a journalist in the late 1960s and has published several selections from her long-running Irish Times weekly column. Her career in fiction began with collections of London stories linked by place, Central Line (1977) and Victoria Line (1980), followed by two with Irish settings, Dublin 4 (1982) and The Lilac Bus (1984). Her first novel, Light a Penny Candle (1982), became a best-seller, while Echoes (1985), Firefly Summer (1987), Silver Wedding (1988), Circle of Friends (1990), and Evening Class (1996) have secured her international standing as an immensely popular author. Her warm-hearted novels are tinged with nostalgia for the Ireland of a few decades ago in which they are generally set, offering a tolerant view of ordinary, sympathetic characters involved in episodes of Irish family life. The Copper Beech (1992) and The Glass Lake (1994) concern small-town loves and jealousies, and the search for freedom.

The Concise Oxford Companion to Irish Literature. Copyright © 1996, 2000, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.