MAEVE BINCHY was born in County Dublin and educated at the Holy Child convent in Killiney and at University College, Dublin.
She worked as a teacher before joining The Irish Times.
Her first novel, Light A Penny Candle, was published in 1982 and she went on to write over 20 books, all of them bestsellers.
Several of her novels have been adapted for cinema and television, including Tara Road.
The award-winning author was married to the writer and broadcaster Gordon Snell for 35 years, and died in 2012.
To celebrate the publication of A Few Of the Girls, the final Maeve Binchy book to be published posthumously, here are 13 oddities about the queen of Irish fiction.
Twelve facts about the queen of Irish fiction:
1. Maeve was a huge fan of Coronation Street and was delighted once to visit the set of the Rovers Return
2. Although the world-famous author lived in Dublin’s picturesque Dalkey, her favourite place to travel - Australia
3. Maeve had an odd food enemy – she didn’t like lettuce
4. The wonderfully down to earth best-selling author believed you should call everyone by their first name, including hospital consultants
5. Maeve wrote an impressive 20 books in her lieftime, but she was also a great writer of postcards
6. Maeve and her devoted husband, the writer, Gordon Snell played chess – regularly but badly
7. The prolific author Maeve worked on her writing every day
8. As a teenager, Maeve fell desperately in love with Marlon Brando and spent all her pocket money on airmail stamps to write to him
Maeve Binchy and her husband Gordon Snell (Picture courtesy of RTE)