Book description
By the school house at Shancarrig stands a copper beech, its bark
scarred with the names and dreams of the pupils who have grown up under
its branches. Under Junior Assistant Mistress Maddy Ross's careful gaze
the children play, but out of school Maddy's gaze lingers where it
shouldn't. Maura Brennan, a bundle of fun from the rough end of town,
plays with her pals: leap year baby Eddie Barton, the apple of his
mother's eye, and Nessa Ryan, who little realises as she carves his name
at the roots of the copper beech on the very last day of school that
she'll get a lot more from one of her schoolmates than her first shy
kiss. The copper beech is the gateway to Maeve Binchy's marvellous
portrait of a small Irish town whose untroubled surface conceals the
passions, rivalries, friendships, ambitions and jealousies beneath.
Maeve Binchy was born in County Dublin and educated at the Holy Child
convent in Killiney and at University College, Dublin. After a spell as
a teacher she joined the Irish Times. Her first novel, Light a Penny
Candle, was published in 1982 and she went on to write over twenty
books, all of them bestsellers. Several have been adapted for cinema and
television, most notably Circle of Friends and Tara Road . Maeve Binchy
received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the British Book Awards in 1999
and the Irish PEN/A. T. Cross award in 2007. In 2010 she was presented
with the Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award at the Bord Gáis Irish
Book Awards by the President of Ireland. She was married to the writer
and broadcaster Gordon Snell for 35 years, and died in 2012. Visit her
website at
www. maevebinchy. com
