Gordon Snell, children’s author and husband of Maeve Binchy, dies aged 93

Prolific writer of more than 70 children’s books also worked in broadcasting and shared a creative partnership with Maeve Binchy

Children's writer Gordon Snell with his late wife and author Maeve Binhcy at their home in Dalkey in 2007. File picture

The death has occurred of Gordon Snell, a children’s author, journalist, and husband of the late author Maeve Binchy.

Snell was born in Singapore in 1932. At the age of ten, he went to boarding school in Australia, where he spent several years with his family.

When his family returned to the UK, Snell went to University of Oxford to study English language and literature. After graduating, he became a radio studio manager with the BBC Overseas Service.

He then moved into writing and presenting. He wrote scripts for numerous shows and worked on Woman’s Hour, where he interviewed many of the pop stars of the day.

Snell published his first book for children in 1978. The King of Quizzical Island tells the story of a king on a quest to find the edge of the world.

When Snell moved to Ireland, he wrote scripts for RTÉ, including Wanderly Wagon. He wrote over 70 books for children, as well as comedy for adults.

Snell first met Maeve when he was a producer with the BBC in London and she was a contributor to BBC Radio 4. A producer on Woman’s Hour introduced them.

They married in 1977 and set up home in Dalkey, where they worked side by side until her death in 2012.

In 2022, Snell told the RTÉ Guide that he met his late wife by “fantastic chance” at the BBC.

He said that people “always thought it strange that they were able to work side by side so companionably."

“At the end of the day, we would read our work to each other and that was a great help because it's always good to have a listening audience and preferably a favourable one.” 

Snell said that they both believed that they were very lucky to have met one another.

“But we didn't just think that, we also voiced it and we never took it for granted."

Snell and Binchy always dedicated their books to each other. However, in 2018, Snell told RTÉ that he decided not to dedicate his books to anyone following her death, as no one could “replace her.”

“I haven’t dedicated them to anybody. You can’t follow that. There isn’t any replacement or possibility of anybody being a ‘dedicatee’ as we used to call it.”