LoveReading Says
Put a writer on a bus, and I guarantee they’ll spend the journey eavesdropping on their fellow passengers and inventing stories about where they’re going. The Lilac Bus is eavesdropping in book form: a delicious slice of life in Ireland in the 1980s, recounting the stories of seven passengers who travel from Dublin to Rathdoon every Friday evening. Each has their own secrets and their own problems, and Maeve Binchy unravels them in the most perfect way. The characterisation is sublime, and although life is very different forty years on, the themes of small town gossip, relationships and betrayal are bang up to date. If you haven’t read any Maeve Binchy yet, this is where I’d start.
Selected by Clare Mackintosh, Our Summer 2022 Guest Editor. Click here to read the full Guest Editor Piece.
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The Lilac Bus Synopsis
Every Friday without fail, the lilac bus transports the same seven people from the bustle of Dublin to spend the weekend in the quaint village of Rathdoon.
Each passenger has their own reason for making the trip. What is Judy hiding? Why is Rupert so unwilling to return home? And why has driver Tom orchestrated the lilac bus's trip in the first place?
As friendships are forged and secrets revealed, it soon becomes clear that there's more to these unsuspecting characters than meets the eye . . .
About This Edition
About Maeve Binchy
Maeve Binchy (1940 - 2012) was born in County Dublin and educated at the Holy Child convent in Killiney and at University College, Dublin. After a spell as a teacher she joined the Irish Times. Her first novel, Light a Penny Candle, was published in 1982 and she went on to write over twenty books, all of them bestsellers. Several have been adapted for cinema and television, most notably Circle of Friends and Tara Road. Maeve Binchy received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the British Book Awards in 1999 and the Irish PEN/A.T. Cross award in 2007. In 2010 she was presented with the Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award at the Irish Book Awards by the President of Ireland.
Binchy, who was 72, has sold more than 40 million books to date, translated into 37 languages. She lived in Dalkey all her life and was married in 1977 to the children's writer Gordon Snell. Her last book carries the dedication: "To Gordon -- who makes life great every single day."
Maeve’s final book A Week in Winter published after her death in 2012 was the winner of the Popular Fiction Prize at the Irish Book Awards.
Fellow novelist SOPHIE KING on MAEVE BINCHY
I was only a teenager when I discovered Maeve and I've always loved her books but the one that sticks out in my mind is Evening Class. It's told from the point of view of different characters - which is what I do in my own books. It's a wonderful way of getting into the characters' heads and also to move the plot along.
Click here to download an article from the Irish Independent about Maeve Binchy.
Click here to download an article from The Belfast Telegraph about Maeve Binchy.
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