Dearly loved Irish author Maeve Binchy, author of bestselling novels Tara Road and Circle of Friends, has passed away at age 72 after a short illness.
The author, who has sold more than 40 million copies of her books worldwide, died peacefully in hospital last night with her husband Gordon Snell by her side. When interviewed by the Weekly in 2010, Maeve said she was suffering heart problems and recently she wrote on her website that her health was preventing her from meeting the fans she loved dearly.
“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,” Maeve wrote.
Maeve lived with Gordon in Dalkey, Ireland – about 100m from the house where she grew up with her parents. Her books often drew on her heritage.
Tributes have been pouring in for Maeve across Twitter and the internet. Crime novelist Ian Rankin wrote, “Maeve Binchy was a gregarious, larger than life, ebullient recorder of human foibles and wonderment. I’m taking a drink to her.”
Kiwi author Nicky Pellegrino credits Maeve as her inspiration to become a fiction writer.
“Sad to hear Maeve Binchy has died. I remember reading one of her novels on a Los Angeles to Auckland flight and afterwards the air steward came up and said, ‘I’ve watched you read and laugh and cry and I’m buying that book the moment I get off the plane’. This has remained my benchmark for success as a writer ever since,” she wrote on Facebook.
Maeve worked as a journalist before having her first book, Light a Penny Candle, published in 1982, at the age of 43. Her book was rejected five times before it was finally accepted. In a 2001 interview with the BBC, Maeve said she was glad she didn’t give up on her book.
“It’s like if you don’t go to a dance you can never be rejected but you’ll never get to dance either,” she said.
