Meave Bincy Snell was an Irish novelist, playwright, short story writer, columnist, and speaker. Born on 28 May, 1939 in county Dublin Binchy was described as being larger-than-life, selling millions of copies in numerous (37) languages of her love and romance novels.
Her first novel, Light A Penny Candle, was published in 1982 and she went on to write a further 20 books, all of them being bestsellers. Many of Binchy’s novels have been adapted for cinema and television.
Meave Binchy died on 30 July 2012 at the age of 73. She had suffered from various health issues such as painful osteoarthritis and just weeks before her death suffered a severe spinal infection but sadly died of a heart attack.
We remember and celebrate Meave Binchy with some of her most famous quotes:
“I look placid, you see, that’s why people think I’m fine. Inside I worry a lot”
“I try to make my characters kind of ordinary, somebody that anybody could be. Because we’ve all had loves, perhaps love and lose, people can relate to my characters”
“I don’t have ugly ducklings turning into swans in my stories. I have ugly ducklings turning into confident ducks”
“Always write as if you are talking to someone. It works. Don’t put on any fancy phrases or accents or things you wouldn’t say in real life”
“I couldn’t have children, so that’s the bad side. But compared to everything else I have, it’s not all that terribly bad. I count my winners rather than my losers”
“On the first day of school, my father told me I’d be the most popular girl and everyone would love me and want to be my friend. It wasn’t so, but it gave me an enormous amount of confidence”
“The biggest influence on my books was the fact that I had worked in a newspaper for so long. In a daily paper, you learn to write very quickly; there is no time to sit and brood about what you are going to say”
“My brother married young, and his is the best marriage I know”
