The Copper Beech: Maeve Binchy

By the school house at Shancarrig stands a copper beech, its bark scarred with the names and dreams of the pupils who have grown up under its branches.

Under Junior Assistant Mistress Maddy Ross`s careful gaze the children play, but out of school Maddy`s gaze lingers where it shouldn`t. Maura Brennan, a bundle of fun from the rough end of town, plays with her pals: leap year baby Eddie Barton, the apple of his mother`s eye, and Nessa Ryan, who little realises as she carves his name at the roots of the copper beech on the very last day of school that she`ll get a lot more from one of her schoolmates than her first shy kiss.

The copper beech is the gateway to Maeve Binchy`s marvellous portrait of a small Irish town whose untroubled surface conceals the passions, rivalries, friendships, ambitions and jealousies beneath.