Maeve Binchy Books

Scarlet Feather is set in contemporary Dublin, and is the story of Cathy Scarlet and Tom Feather, who go into business together as caterers. Tom is the son of a builder and his fanatically devout wife, both of whom are disappointed that he hasn't joined the family building firm. Cathy's father is an inveterately optimistic gambler on the horses, and her mother, Lizzie, is a domestic cleaner. Lizzie cleans the house of Cathy's mother-in-law, the fearsome Hannah Mitchell. Hannah is furious that her clever lawyer son, Neil, should have married her maid's daughter, and is even more outraged when Cathy sets up Scarlet Feather with Tom. Tom's hopelessly obsessive love for his beautiful, ambitious model girlfriend, Marcella, and Cathy's increasingly distant marriage to Neil, form the heart of the emotional tangles in the story. Against a background of hilarious catering triumphs and disasters, these key relationships begin to crumble, and the aphrodisiac of shared business trials and tribulations starts its inevitable work on Cathy and Tom. Meanwhile, around them, a magical supporting cast of classic Binchy characters weaves its spell: a comically dreadful but endearing set of twin children; a lonely man looking for the foster-daughter he had to hand back to her real parents years earlier; the glamorous aunt whose financial backing of Scarlet Feather has a dubious source. These and many more wend their way through a story of love, heartbreak and laughter - Maeve Binchy at her most beguiling.

EVENING CLASS The Italian evening class at Mountainview School is like hundreds of others all over Dublin. But this class has its own special quality - as the focus for the varied hopes and dreams of teacher and pupils alike. By the time the pupils set off on a grand trip to Italy, a surprising number of them have found more than the Italian language in the evening class. THE COPPER BEECH Shancarrig School stands in the shade of a glorious old copper beech whose colours tell the passing of the seasons and the years: a tree that has watched over many young lives. Here is a delightful story of the lives, loves and dreams of the people who pass below its branches. TARA ROAD Ria and Marilyn have never met - they live thousands of miles apart, one in Tara Road, Dublin, the other in New England. When each needs a place to escape to, a house exchange seems an ideal solution. Along with the borrowed houses come gossip and speculation, and friendship, as Ria and Marilyn swap lives for the summer...

Dublin 4: A society hostess invites her husband’s mistress to dinner. A country girl savours the delights of city life. A student faces the dilemma of unmarried pregnancy. A drink-ridden photographer tries to relaunch a shattered career. Dublin 4 has all of Maeve Binchy’s intimate grasp of human feelings, her marvellous ear for dialogue and her subtle sense of life’s confusion. The stories bubble with fun and wit — yet sometimes leave a taste of sadness. Victoria Line Central Every day, millions of people travel on London’s Underground, yet everyday life is not nearly as mundane as we think. At Notting Hill, the secretary, harbouring her secrets travels to work; at Highbury and Islington, Adam has a sudden change of heart; at Holborn, a disastrous reunion is about to take place. With her characteristic mix of humour and biting realism, Maeve Binchy enters the lives of ordinary people. The Lilac Bus is a collection of interrelated short stories by the writer Maeve Binchy, first published in 1984. The stories were later republished, along with the earlier collection Dublin 4, in The Lilac Stories.

Among the many evening classes starting all over Dublin is an 'Introduction to Italian'. On the surface it could be just one of hundreds in which some students will succeed and others will fall by the wayside. But the Italian class at Mountainview School has its own special quality, and the hopes and dreams of so many people are tied up in the twice-weekly lessons. The students learn far more than they ever bargained for, and by the time they are ready to set off on the promised trip to Italy at the end of the year, everyone's destiny has changed utterly.

Fresh from cooking school, Tom Feather and Cathy Scarlet are hot new additions to the Dublin scene with their new catering company, but some people in the city, including their families, are not so keen on the idea of their success. Reprint.

In the Irish town of Schancarrig, the young people carve their initials—and those of their loves-into the copper beech tree in front of the schoolhouse. But not even Father Gunn, the parish priest, who knows most of what goes on behind Shancarrig's closed doors, or Dr. Jims, the village doctor, who knows all the rest, realizes that not everything in the placid village is what it seems.

“[An] irresistible invitation to share the lives of people who believe in enduring values.”—Detroit Free Press It began with Benny Hogan and Eve Malone, growing up, inseparable, in the village of Knockglen. Benny—the only child, yearning to break free from her adoring parents. . . . Eve—the orphaned offspring of a convent handyman and a rebellious blueblood, abandoned by her mother's wealthy family to be raised by nuns. Eve and Benny—they knew the sins and secrets behind every villager's lace curtains . . . except their own. It widened at Dublin, at the university where Benny and Eve met beautiful Nan Mahlon and Jack Foley, a doctor's handsome son. But heartbreak and betrayal would bring the worlds of Knockglen and Dublin into explosive collision. Long-hidden lies would emerge to test the meaning of love and the strength of ties held within the fragile gold bands of a. . . Circle Of Friends. Praise for Circle of Friends “A rare pleasure . . . at terrific tale, told by a master storyteller.”—Susan Isaacs, The New York Times Book Review “Circle of Friends welcomes you in.”—The Washington Post

Kit McMahon lives in the small Irish town of Lough Glass, where everyone knows everyone; children who walk to school together grow up and become sweethearts and marry, people gossip and grumble and dream their lives away. For it is a place where change comes slowly. Until one day, beautiful, mysterious Helen McMahon disappears, presumed drowned in the lake, and then the gossip runs wild. The consequences for Helen's husband, her son, but above all for her daughter, Kit, are unimaginable and will leave not one of their lives unchanged.