Gordon Snell is a British author of

children's literature Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

and scriptwriter. He was married to Irish author Maeve Binchy from 1977 until her death in 2012. He lives in the home that he shared with his late wife in

Dalkey Dalkey ( ; ) is an affluent suburb of Dublin, and a seaside resort southeast of the city, and the town of Dún Laoghaire, in the county of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown in the historic County Dublin, Ireland. It was founded as a Viking settlement ...

, outside of

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

Early life

Snell was born in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

in 1932.Shennan, Margaret. Out in the Midday Sun: The British in Malaya 1880-1960. Singapore: Monsoon Books Pte. Limited, 2015. He was an only child, and lived with his mother and father in Singapore during the British colonization period. He went with his mother to Australia looking for a boarding school for him. They remained in Australia when Singapore was invaded by the Japanese in February 1942. He attended the

Geelong College , motto_translation = Thus one goes to the stars , established = , type = Independent, co-educational, day and boarding, Christian school , denomination = in association with the Uniting ...

in Victoria, leaving in 1946. He was separated from his father for three years, who was taken prisoner during the

Japanese occupation of Singapore , officially , was the name for Singapore when it was occupied and ruled by the Empire of Japan, following the fall and surrender of British military forces on 15 February 1942 during World War II. Japanese military forces occupied it after ...

of World War II. After the war, the family moved to the UK.'We wrote for different audiences, it made for a harmonious home'.
Irish Independent, September 30, 2018 He finished

Secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

in Wiltshire. At Dauntsey's School he collaborated in school plays with

Adrian Mitchell Adrian Mitchell FRSL (24 October 1932 – 20 December 2008) was an English poet, novelist and playwright. A former journalist, he became a noted figure on the British Left. For almost half a century he was the foremost poet of the country's Cam ...

. He attended Oxford, where he was a friend and classmate of

Bernard Donoughue Bernard Donoughue, Baron Donoughue (born 8 September 1934) is a Labour Party (UK), British Labour Party politician, academic, businessman and author.Maeve Binchy at the BBC where he was a freelance producer. He took his future wife on a hovercraft trip to

Boulogne Boulogne-sur-Mer (; pcd, Boulonne-su-Mér; nl, Bonen; la, Gesoriacum or ''Bononia''), often called just Boulogne (, ), is a coastal city in Northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department of Pas-de-Calais. Boulogne lies on the ...

. But, they spent all their time there talking to each other, and never saw Boulogne. He and Maeve married in 1977. Working freelance, they did not have to live near publishers in London, and ultimately moved to her hometown,

(just outside

). For Gordon's 65th birthday, Maeve gave him a surprise gift of a rose variety named after him. In 2011, the couple appeared together on the Irish television

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

, '' Fair City''. He was by her hospital bedside when she died the following year. At Maeve's death, her estate was valued at ten million euros, of which two thirds went to Gordon.

Writing

His books include ''Amy's Wonderful Nest'', ''Tina and the Tooth Fairy'' and ''The Supermarket Ghost''. His other books include ''The Phantom Horseman'', ''Dangerous Treasure'', ''The Mystery of Monk Island'', ''The Curse of Werewolf Castle'' and ''The Tex and Sheelagh Omnibus''. He has commissioned and edited the collection ''Thicker Than Water'' on growing up, contributed to by Irish and Irish-American writers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Snell, Gordon Living people English children's writers 20th-century English writers 21st-century English writers 20th-century English male writers 21st-century English male writers Binchy family People from Singapore English expatriates in Ireland 1932 births