Maeve Binchy, author of numerous works including Circle of Friends, Tara Road and Heart and Soul passed away last Tuesday (Australian Time) aged 72. The Irish novelist was the author of seventeen novels with her final work, A Week in Winter to see print towards the end of this year. Most of Binchy’s stories are set in Ireland, and are based around the tensions between urban and rural life, the differences between England and Ireland, and the changes in Ireland since the Second World War. A number of her novels are also interrelated, with characters from The Copper Beech appearing in Silver Wedding, The Lilac Bus, Evening Class, and Heart and Soul.

Maeve died on 30 July 2012 in a hospital in Dublin after a short illness. According to Enda Kenny, Ireland’s Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Ireland has “lost a national treasure”. Maeve was featured in our spotlight series in 2009.