Gordon Snell, the children’s author, journalist and husband of the late Maeve Binchy, has died aged 93.
He published his first book for children, The King of Quizzical Island, in 1978, following it up with Amy’s Wonderful Nest, Tina and the Tooth Fairy and The Supermarket Ghost, among others.
He met Binchy in the 1970s, when she was appointed to the London office of The Irish Times. The pair married in 1977 and moved to Ireland in the early 1980s. Binchy died in 2012; the couple had no children.
Snell was born in 1932 in Singapore, where his father worked as a surveyor. In 1942 his mother brought him to Australia to settle him into boarding school. She had intended to return to Singapore almost immediately but could not do so after the Japanese invasion began.
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Snell did a degree at Oxford, then became a radio-studio manager at what is now the BBC World Service.
After moving to Ireland he wrote scripts for RTÉ, including for the popular children’s show Wanderly Wagon.
Assistant general secretary of the NUJ Seamus Dooley said: “Gordon and Maeve were a couple who inspired affection and respect. No second names were needed when referring to these two hugely successful writers and the NUJ valued their support.”
Dooley said Snell “could appear the quintessential Englishman” but had “a very Irish sense of humour”.
“He was proud to be known as Maeve’s husband but Gordon also made an enormous contribution to the arts and literature, especially children’s literature and like Maeve was a tremendous supporter of emerging talent,” Dooley said.
Writer Henrietta McKervey paid tribute to Snell, describing him as “kind, funny, clever, always interested in people and their goings-on, and invariably considerate and thoughtful with advice”.
“Gordon was a wonderful man. I feel very lucky to have known him, and will miss him dearly,” she said.
Echoes Book Festival, a Dalkey based festival which celebrates the life and work of Maeve Binchy shared a post on social media which said: “It is with the deepest sadness that we mourn the passing this morning of Gordon Snell, author, broadcaster and Maeve’s beloved husband of over 35 years.
“They spent their very happily married lives together writing heartfelt dedications to each other in their books and entertaining each other with stories”.
The tribute concluded by saying: “Our consolation is that they are reunited together now in love and laughter”.
In 2009 Binchy revealed that Snell had had a heart-bypass operation.
In a 2023 Irish Times interview with McKervey, Snell said: “Maeve and I always said we were very lucky, first to have met each other but also that we realised we were lucky. It’s one of the most important things.”
