MATERIA NON MEDICA; THE DEATH OF MAEVE BINCHY

Friday, 3rd of August 2012

Maeve Binchy, the Irish author, died yesterday, 30 July, at the age of 72. She was well know for her novels and short stories, starting with Light a Penny Candle. Her works, selling over 40 million copies, were translated into 37 languages.

Here is an interview she gave to Sarah Kinson in The Guardian in 2007.

What was your favourite book as a child?

Undoubtedly it was Winnie the Pooh. My parents would read it to me endlessly. I loved Kanga and Eeyore and thought of them as my friends. I used to ask where was I in the Hundred Acre Wood and my parents indulged me by saying I was on a tree or on a gate, then I felt part of it all.

When you were growing up did you have books in your home?

Yes, books were everywhere. Floor to ceiling were shelves of books. My father went to work by train every day. It was half an hour's journey each way and he would read a paperback in four journeys. After supper we all sat down to read - it was long before TV, remember!

Was there someone who you interested in reading?

Because I saw my parents relaxing in armchairs and reading and liking it, I thought it was a peaceful grown-up thing to do, and I still think that.

What made you want to write when you were starting out?

I never wanted to write. I just wrote letters home from a kibbutz in Israel to reassure my parents that I was still alive and well fed and having a great time. They thought these letters were brilliant and sent them to a newspaper. So I became a writer by accident.

Do you find writing easy?

It is easy in a way because I write just as if I were talking to you or writing a letter to a friend, but there is a danger of course that I could ramble all over the place and repeat myself, as we do in conversations with friends. So the hard bit is watching out for that!

What makes you write now?

Because my head is full of stories and I love to tell them. I have a story in my head now about a woman who thought she was being invited in by the boss to discuss promotion but in fact she as being fired. And I want to tell how she recovered from it all. I am dying to write it.

How do you write (do you have a daily routine?)

I am married to a writer, Gordon Snell, who writes children's books and we TRY to be upstairs in our big light-filled airy study by 8.30 in the morning, followed by an elderly cat who tells us when its time to go down again for lunch. I try to get in four and a half hours at the laptop every day, five days a week.

How do you survive being alone in your work so much of the time?

I'm only alone two mornings a week when Gordon plays golf but the main problem is getting distracted when you have nobody there to monitor you!

What good advice was given to you when you were starting out?

An English journalist called Michael Viney told me when I was 25, that I would write well if I cared a lot what I was writing about. That worked. I went home that day and wrote about parents not understanding their children as well as we teachers did, and it was published the very next week.

What advice would you give to new writers?

Always write as if you are talking to someone. It works. Don't put on any fancy phrases or accents or things you wouldn't say in real life. Say someone cried - don't say: "tears coursed down her face". Take it nice and easy, don't try to impress.

What are you working on at the moment?

I am busy with the publicity for a movie called How About You, which I wrote the story for. It will be in cinemas in November and stars Vanessa Redgrave and Imelda Staunton. I am also planning out my next book, which is called Heart and Soul.

· Whitethorn Woods by Maeve Binchy is published in paperback on June 27 by Orion Books.