I WRITE very much as I speak,' says Maeve Binchy. It follows, then, that an interview with this best-selling author will be long and extremely pleasant. 'I hate violence and to write about sex would be disloyal to the few people I've had it with,' she continues. 'In real life, I don't talk very much about thrusting and plunging. So you won't get a lot of that in my books.' But Binchy, the author of worldwide bestsellers such as Light a Penny Candle, Circle of Friends, The Copper Beech and, most recently, The Glass Lake' certainly can talk - about almost everything else under the sun. The conversation sweeps from Ireland in the 50s to the role of the Catholic church in that country today, Hollywood and the trials of having your books adapted for the big screen, a quiet life in Dublin with her husband, Gordon Snell, and their two cats, the crippling arthritis which limits her public appearances, her former career as a journalist, the weekly column she still writes for the Irish Times - and that's not even counting the amusing anecdotes.
'I love telling long rambling stories,' she confesses. And more than two hours later, she's still as enthralling as her any of her 600-page novels. Like Binchy, her country characters start out in a more innocent age (she was born in 1940) and grow up to take on the big city (usually Dublin, or they may even get as far as London, like her) and the sexual revolution. 'I don't really need to do book tours,' she says. 'I have bad arthritis and also, it's vulgar to say, but I do have enough money now. I like to do book signings, though. For starters, I can sit down. People come up and thank me for not putting sex and violence in my books. I never know how to respond. Should I say, you're welcome? Or, there's too much of that in my private life already, I need a bit of escapism?' Fundamentally, says the author, 'When we were young, we were told if you're good, you're going to be happy, and that's patently not true. That became clear particularly as I got older and I saw lovely people who had rotten lives, and I wished they hadn't been such victims. Happiness only happens when you take control of your own life. In my books, the ugly ducklings never become swans, but they become confident ducks. Somehow, they can survive.' Unlike her characters, Binchy feels she has 'been dealt a good hand'. 'I had a happy family,' she explains - something which does come across in her books - 'and I'm very close to my sisters now. I was fortunate to have enough money to go to university. I got a job teaching, and just when I was thinking I'd like a change, the Irish Times offered me the job of women's editor on the basis of three articles which they'd published. Things were different then, of course. It was easier to get a job in journalism.' That was in 1968, and Binchy later moved across to England to become a feature writer for the paper, tentatively started writing short stories, which were published in book form, and found instant success with her first novel, Light A Penny Candle in 1983. When then First Lady Barbara Bush told Oprah Winfrey that Binchy was her favourite author, America capitulated. 'I don't enquire about the figures,' she says, but the print run for next year's paperback version of The Glass Lake is already set at one million. 'Isn't it great? I was terrified I'd never have a second novel in me, but now I've settled into a routine of one every two years. I'm not sure quite why they're so successful, except for maybe we all see bits of ourselves in them.' Binchy now has 11 books to her name, and says she's only 'flattered into writing more. I'm really susceptible to flattery.' She has been married to fellow author Gordon Snell (he writes children's books) for 21 years, owns two 'small houses, one in Dalkey, outside Dublin, and one in Olympia, London', has two cars, and ideally writes with her husband from 8.30am to 2pm every day, after which she repairs to the local pub for lunch. 'We have enough now,' she says. 'Neither of us needs to do it any more, but it's very satisfying.' The only blot on the horizon is her arthritis, which first struck eight years ago. 'I'm quite lame,' she says, admitting to experiencing difficulty in getting around, but prefers to play it down. She had a health scare last year when she failed to recognise an attack of peritonitis: 'With the arthritis, I've gotten quite used to pain and I just thought it was the arthritis getting worse,' she explains. 'I've got to be more careful. I can't get a hip replacement because I've got brittle bones.' Binchy now raises funds for arthritis treatment, and treats the subject with her trademark good humour. 'I love the way they talk about 'a touch of arthritis' she laughs. 'It's more like a 'blast'.' The most exciting thing for Binchy right now is the first Hollywood adaptation of her work. Circle of Friends, directed by Pat O'Connor (Ballroom of Romance, Lamb) and starring Chris O'Donnell (Scent of a Woman), which will be released in America around St Patrick's Day. 'I've seen it already,' she enthuses, 'and it's fabulous.' But it wasn't always this way.
'I was a bit depressed at the beginning,' she admits. 'Everybody was nice and smashing and everything when they wanted to buy the book, but when it was sold, there wasn't a word from them, not even a Christmas card. My agent explained to me that they'd bought a property. It was like buying a sofa at Selfridge's - I wouldn't call to tell them I'd put it under the window.' But it got worse. 'I saw the script and I thought it was all wrong. I was very depressed about it,' she said. 'In the 1950s there wasn't a lot of sexual activity in Ireland and the whole idea of a group of girls merrily bonking away in Ireland was totally inaccurate. I did not like it.' Then she saw the finished product. 'All the things I'd objected to in the script had been taken out,' she explains. 'I hadn't realised the script is only a starting-off point. I should have had more faith in Pat O'Connor, but it just seemed so sleazy. I was going to be 'not available', but now I'm really looking forward to going to America and doing pre-publicity for it.' Once again, the cards fall into place for Ireland's beloved author. You couldn't meet a happier soul. 'I'm not very glitterati at all,' she says. 'My wish would be to see the people I know and like more often. In the evenings, we go to a friend's place or they come around, or I see my sisters and we watch television. We had a decorator around and he looked at the living room and said 'I don't expect you spend too much time here'. I said, 'well just about every night, 7.30pm to midnight'. I'm happy, but I'm not smug. It's just luck.'
