Literary Queen Maeve Seeking Time to Dance
By Dave Abbott
Inisfree Communications
Special to The Irish American Post
 

"I'd love to be a monument in Phoenix Park and have people come and have a picnic at my feet."

Dublin-born Maeve Binchy, one of the top-selling authors in the world, was in an expansive mood attending her final International Writers Festival, held recently in Vancouver, B.C. She was busy explaining why her latest book Scarlet Feather, was her final novel. She has retired. She's quitting, after writing 14 best sellers translated into 36 languages, while at the top of her game. She turned 60 this year.

"Is age an important factor?," she's asked.

"Yes, she replied, "There is a piece in the Bible which says there is a time to dance, a time for different things and a time to rest and I'm looking forward to that bit!"

It was typical Binchy...straight from the heart, direct, simply put with a slight self-deprecating humor. 

"It's time to call it to a halt. I've been 111 days out of Ireland this year promoting books, so perhaps it is time to call it a day. I also met a fantastic man when I was in my 30s, Gordon Snell, a lovely Englishman, and we have remained married ever since and we'd like to spend more of our time together." With that, she smiled like a newlywed.
Her publishers are distraught. They don't want her to stop. She's a literary goldmine. Scarlet Feather, just out, has sold three million copies already and the movie rights have been snapped up like several of her previous novels, most notably Circle of Friends in 1995.

"That one paid my mortgage," she said.

The mortgage to which she referred was on the modest stone cottage where she and her husband still lived and worked -- in the picturesque town of Dalkey, a few miles south of Dublin. 

She feels at home in this village, close by Holy Child Convent where she was educated, with its old-fashioned atmosphere, narrow streets and shops such as the Country Bakery, The Exchange Book Store, a greengrocers and Finnegan's pub where she and Gordon are regulars. 

She's surprised at how fashionable Dalkey has become the place to live. Celebrities like U2's Bono and The Edge have an old mansion just up the Vico Road. Another singer, Enya, resides around the corner and also nearby are Grand Prix racing driver Damon Hill, filmmaker Neil Jordan and writers like Hugh Leonard (of Da fame) and Robert Fisk.

"Will I miss writing the books?

"No, not at all, for it takes more time than it should and you end up a victim of your own success. My books do really well now -- in places like Sweden, Holland, Germany and Israel. I was in Tel Aviv on St. Patrick's Day this year and met some of my old students. It interesting to see my books in Hebrew. Did you know they write backwards to us?"
"Anyway," she continued without taking a breath, "there are lots of young people who are 14 years old now who have 14 books to look forward to reading. And after, all my books are simple, they have what publishers call the ' feel good factor.' I have a very sunny attitude to life. I got the slice of bread with the jam on it. I'm also a bossy boots person. I know how to run everyone's life.

"In fact, many people in Ireland say to me -- after a few drinks -- 'I could have written that book' and I say to them in a perfectly agreeable manner, 'you could have but you didn't - I was the one who sat down for eight months and wrote every day.'"

Binchy's delivery was like a rapid fire-machine gun, coming in bursts, spraying non-sequitors, hardly pausing for breath. 

There is always a moment of mild astonishment when a reader turns the final page of a Maeve Binchy novel and looks up, only to discover that the characters don't actually live in their house.

""Yes, she said, that's probably because I write as I talk and my stories are about ordinary people. My heroines don't become thin if they are fat or rich if they are poor. We are all the heroines or heroes of our lives.
"People never bore me and I look at them and wonder what story lies there. Everyone has a story to tell. I have had a very good hand dealt to me. And, in my case, I came from an extremely happy childhood."
Smiling, she agreed that she was a modern-day seannaci?, an Irish storyteller. "We Irish love our storytellers. People tell stories in Ireland, always did. One of the great advantages of being Irish is that we don't like long silences and we don't see any great advantage in being a good listener -- we much prefer to be talkers. Imagine waiting to speak until you have something to say. It would be very depressing."

But there may be another unspoken reason for Maeve's retirement -- her health.

A longtime chronic arthritic sufferer, she had a hip replacement, but remained in constant pain battling a weight problem which restricted her mobility. Just walking on stage took a major effort and standing up after sitting for any length of time caused excruciating pain.

She was scheduled to do a reading although she admitted she was tired, short of breath and in pain. But she remained unfailingly co-operative and uncomplaining as ever. Once on stage, she read from her latest book and answered questions from the audience. It was a packed house, one filled with adoring fans, most of whom are women. They loved her, recognizing their own lives in the Binchy books that crowded their shelves as they do in 36 other countries. 

She deserved that monument, pigeons and all.
 
 

Dave Abbott, a native of Dublin, lives in Vancouver. "Her brogue remained unchanged since our first meeting 30-odd years earlier as students in Dublin," he reported after speaking with Binchy.