market, featuring on the New York Times best-seller list and in Oprah's Book Club. Yeats, Seamus Heaney, Edna O'Brien and Roddy Doyle. Her books have outsold those of other Irish writers such as Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, W. Her novels, which were translated into 37 languages, sold more than 40 million copies worldwide, and her death, announced by Vincent Browne on Irish television late on 30 July 2012, was mourned as the passing of Ireland's best-loved and most recognisable writer. She is best known for her humorous take on small-town life in Ireland, her descriptive characters, her interest in human nature and her often clever surprise endings. Maeve Binchy Snell was an Irish novelist, playwright, short story writer, columnist, and speaker.

Education-B.A., University College, Dublin.

Once again, she embraces us with her grand storytelling. Sharing a week with this unlikely cast of characters is pure joy, full of Maeve’s trademark warmth and humor.

John, the American movie star, thinks he has arrived incognito Winnie and Lillian are forced into taking a holiday together Nicola and Henry, husband and wife, have been shaken by seeing too much death practicing medicine Anders hates his father’s business, but has a real talent for music Miss Nell Howe, a retired schoolteacher, criticizes everything and leaves a day early, much to everyone’s relief the Walls are disappointed to have won this second-prize holiday in a contest where first prize was Paris and Freda, the librarian, is afraid of her own psychic visions. Helped by Rigger (a bad boy turned good who is handy around the house) and Orla, her niece (a whiz at business), Chicky is finally ready to welcome the first guests to Stone House’s big warm kitchen, log fires, and understated elegant bedrooms.

When Chicky Starr decides to take an old, decaying mansion set high on the cliffs overlooking the windswept Atlantic Ocean and turn it into a restful place for a holiday by the sea, everyone thinks she is crazy. Stoneybridge is a small town on the west coast of Ireland where all the families know one another.

A Week in Winter by Maeve Binchy