This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
When Novelicious chatted to Sarah Webb last week, we asked, what is your favourite women’s fiction book of all time and why? She answered Rachel’s Holiday by Marian Keyes and Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy. And why? Because they are “two amazing Irish writers who changed everything. Irish women writers owe them both a lot.” I couldn’t agree more, except maybe, all current women writers owe them a lot.
Sarah’s comments got me thinking about these two amazing Irish women writers, Maeve in particular as she sadly died last year in 2012. I adore all of her books, but do I have five favourites? Possibly not, but these five are the ones that have stayed with me the most.
1. Light a Penny Candle – This was the first book I read of Maeve’s. I picked it up in a holiday villa as a teenager, and sneakily brought it home with me. I just couldn’t face being parted from it. I regularly received a Maeve Binchy novel as a birthday or Christmas present. Starting during the blitz, Elizabeth is sent to Ireland to stay with the O’Connors. Where she strikes up an unbreakable friendship with Aisling.
2. Circle of Friends – I really need to re-read this – it has been a few years since I last read it. Again, it is about a strong friendship. Benny, only daughter of a gentle, old fashioned couple who run the gentleman’s outfitters in sleepy Knockglenn. And Eve Malone who is reared in the convent by nuns. They meet when they’re ten and the story starts, leading on to university at Dublin.
3. Tara Road – Ria’s life, married to Danny with two children, revolves around her house in Tara Road, particularly the warm, welcoming kitchen. But Danny is busy, always working. When Ria suggests another baby, her world collapses as Danny admits to an affair. So Ria decides to swap houses with a lady from New England to get her life back together.
4. Quentins – Quentins is actually a restaurant, not far from Ria’s house. It is run by the very capable Patrick and Brenda Brennan but other characters, some from Maeve’s other books, also appear (such as Ria from Tara Road.) Ella Brady wants to make a documentary about the restaurant. But as she discovers its secrets she wonders whether the documentary should be made at all.
5.The Glass Lake – Kit McMahon lives in a sleepy village where nothing much happens and nothing ever changes. Until her mum is missing, presumed drowned in the lake. And Kit’s life is never the same.
Maeve Binchy has given me so much enjoyment and warmth over the years. If her books were food they’d be the comfort and welcome of a loaf of bread, fresh from the oven encouraging you over the hearth. It is sad to think there will never be any more. But the good news is Maeve’s books are wonderful to re-read. Honestly you can never, ever get bored of them.