- The best-selling Irish author is reportedly one of former first lady Barbara Bush's favorite writers. Binchy enjoys the unique tax-free status granted to writers, screenwriters, poets, playwrights, composers, and painters by the Irish government.
- Went to University College Dublin in 1957 and has had two main characters in her books (Benny in "Circle of Friends" and Clare in "Echoes") attend the same university and study the same subjects she did.
- Her husband is English.
- Biography/bibliography in: "Contemporary Authors". New Revision Series, vol. 134, pages 52-57. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2005.
- Cousin of the actress Kate Binchy.
- Suffers from fear of flying (aerophobia).
- In 1978, Binchy won a Jacob's Award for her RTÉ play, Deeply Regretted By. A second award went to the lead actor, Donall Farmer. A 1993 photograph of her by Richard Whitehead belongs to the collection of the National Portrait Gallery (London)and a painting of her by Maeve McCarthy, commissioned in 2005, is on display in the National Gallery of Ireland. In 2001, Scarlet Feather won the W H Smith Book Award for Fiction, defeating works by Joanna Trollope and then reigning Booker winner Margaret Atwood, amongst other contenders. In 2010, she received a lifetime achievement award from the Irish Book Awards.
- Binchy's last novel -Minding Frankie- was published in 2010, the same year she received a lifetime achievement award from the Irish Book Awards.
- After graduating from University College Dublin, Binchy worked as a teacher before becoming a journalist, columnist and editor at the Irish Times. She later moved to England, where she assumed the post of the newspaper's London editor in the early 1970s.
- Her first novel, Light a Penny Candle, was published in 1982 and went on to become a bestseller.
- She wrote 16 novels, four collections of short stories, a play and a novella. Her work landed her on the New York Times' bestseller list and in Oprah's Book Club.
- Her novels have sold over 40 Million worldwide in over 40 languages.
- Her daily writing regime was a target of 2,000 written words per day.
- In May 2010, it was revealed that Zentropa Productions officially acknowledged the plot similarities of Italian for Beginners (2000) to Maeve Binchy's novel "Evening Class". Danish writer-director Lone Scherfig obviously 'borrowed' part of her plot from the Irish novel. Binchy was not credited in the original release of the film as Zentropa had determined they were not in breach of copyright, but after Binchy's representatives approached them they paid a non-disclosed compensation and added a credit for her in later releases. The film ranks as one of the best-known and most profitable Scandinavian films in history.
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