Superb storytelling from one of the world’s best-loved writers.

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, whose 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 the fiancé not everyone approves of. And Melly, whose gossip about the neighbours leads to trouble in the form of the fortune teller, ‘Madame Magic’…

‘In Chestnut Street [there is] enough kindness, wisdom and insight into human nature, to remind readers why Maeve Binchy was one of the most beloved writers this country has ever produced’ Irish Times

(*This is an updated version of an earlier review as this is my second reading of this novel)

Full of Warmth & Understanding!

This is a book published after the author’s death, but it is one which was always intended. Stories of different characters with only the street where they reside in common, these tales were penned over the years and kept in a drawer exactly for this purpose. I have to say that, even though this was my second reading it was like reading it all over again for the first time.

Maeve Binchy demonstrates her sharp perception of the differing characters … young, old, single, coupled and from every walk of life. The perfect book to keep at your bedside and read a story every now and then, and wait for the penny to drop when you join up the dots which connect them all. I have read all of this author’s books – some several times and she is a hard act to follow.

As ever, a warm-hearted and enjoyable read and a fitting tribute to such a wonderful author. Many thanks to her husband, Gordon Snell and the publishers for putting them all together in such a marvellous book. Highly recommend and easily earning all five glowing stars.

Tags: short stories

• Format: ebook, paperback, hardcover, audiobook, audio cassette
• Size: 401 pages
• Publisher: Orion
• Publication Date: 24 April 2014
• Book Links:
• https://www.goodreads.com
• https://play.google.com
• https://www.barnesandnoble.com
• https://www.foyles.co.uk
• https://www.kobo.com
• https://www.whsmith.co.uk
• https://www.waterstones.com
• https://wordery.com
• https://www.amazon.co.uk

Author Details

Maeve Binchy 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, including 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 Bord Gáis Irish Book Awards by the President of Ireland. She was married to the writer and broadcaster Gordon Snell for 35 years, and died in 2012.