'THE GLASS LAKE is Maeve Binchy at her spellbinding best - you'll never want it to end' Woman's Journal'Maeve Binchy really knows what makes women tick. She crystallises their hopes, dreams and passions in her novels and now she has done it again in THE GLASS LAKE ... a marvellous read' Daily MirrorKit McMahon lives in the small Irish town of Lough Glass, a place where nothing changes - until the day Kit's mother disappear...

Get the feel-better factor from Maeve Binchy as she teams up with artist Wendy Shea to bring us ACHES & PAINS. This gem of a book includes:Five things you can say to annoy the patient in the next bedHow to put on elastic stockingsSix ways to make non-alcoholic drinks bearableHow to be the perfect hospital visitorUnusual but essential things for your medicine cupboardFilled with fun, warmth and wisdom, for which Maeve Binchy is famous, ACHES & PAIN...

A silver wedding means a family gathering - difficult occasions at the best of times. But for the Doyles - Deidre, Desmond and their children Anna, Helen and Brendan - it will be more difficult than most.For each of them is keeping up a front; each of them is nursing a secret wound, or smarting over a hidden betrayal. As the day draws nearer, so the tension mounts, until finally the guests gather at the silver wedding party itself...Read by Kate Binchy(p) 1988 Audib...

In the small Irish town of Knockglen, best friends Bernadette ('Benny') and Eve are inseparable. Benny is an adored only child, and Eve, a poor, birdlike orphan brought up by nuns.On their first day at University College, Dublin, a fatal road accident brings the pair together with fellow students Nan Mahon and Jack Foley, and new friendships are quickly struck. Jack and Nan introduce Eve and Benny to a life of excitement and sophistication. But beneath their carefree existence trou...

Just round the corner from St Jarlath's Crescent (featured in Minding Frankie) is Chestnut Street. Here, the lives of the residents are revealed in Maeve Binchy's wonderfully compelling tales:Bucket Maguire, the window cleaner, who must do more than he bargained for to protect his son.Nessa Byrne, who's aunt comes to visit from America for six weeks every summer and turns the house - and Nessa's world - upside down. Lilian, the generous girl with a big heart, and th...

This is the story of two very different children growing up in a small Irish seaside town in the 50s and 60s. Shouting their hearts' desires into the echo cave, praying that their destiny will lead them far away from the town in which they live. Castlebay, in winter empty and grey with wind and sea spray, becomes all bustle and colour in the gaudy days of summer. The paths of these two characters are destined to criss-cross in a quite unforeseen way, and eventually both roads will lead bac...

A society hostess entertains her husband's mistress to dinner; a country girl savours the delights of city life; a student faces the dilemma of unmarried pregnancy; and a drink-ridden photographer tries to relaunch his shattered career.A vintage collection of four stories set in the heart of Dublin's fashionable Southside, DUBLIN 4 has all of the author's intimate grasp of human feelings, and her marvellous ear for dialogue.Read by Kate Binchy(p) 1988 Audible Ltd

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 ...

Ria and Marilyn have never met - they live thousands of miles apart, separated by the Atlantic Ocean: one in a big, warm, Victorian house in Tara Road, Dublin, the other in a modern, open-plan house in New England.Two more unlikely friends would be hard to find: Ria's life revolves around her family and friends, while Marilyn's reserve is born of grief. But when each needs a place to escape to, a house exchange seems the ideal solution.Along with the borrowed houses come ne...

'FIREFLY SUMMER is warm, humorous, sad and happy. Reading it is a joy' Irish IndependentIn the summer of 1962, an American millionaire arrives in a small, sleepy Irish town with far-reaching consequences.For the children of the Ryan family, the long hot summers are usually spent playing in the ruins of a large, abandoned house. But when the American, Patrick O'Neill, buys the ruins, dreams are made and broken and secrets which should never be revealed are betrayed....

As someone who fell off a chair not long ago trying to hear what they were saying at the next table in a restaurant, I suppose I am obsessively interested in what some might consider the trivia of other people's lives.'Maeve Binchy is well-known for her bestselling novels, the most recent of which was A WEEK IN WINTER. But for many years Maeve was a journalist, writing for the IRISH TIMES. From 'The Student Train' to 'Plane Bores' and 'Bathroom Joggers' to 'When Beckett met Binchy'...

'The Irish do love telling stories, and we are suspicious of people who don't have long, complicated conversations. There used to be a rule in etiquette books that you should invite four talkers and four listeners to a dinner party. That doesn't work in Ireland, because nobody knows four listeners' Maeve BinchyMaeve Binchy's bestselling novels not only tell wonderful stories, they also give an insight in to how Ireland has changed over the decades, but how people remain th...