Molly Keane

1904–1996

Irish novelist and playwright who wrote about the declining Anglo-Irish gentry of the big houses. Born Mary Nesta Skrine in County Kildare and raised in County Wexford, she began writing in her teens and published eleven novels between 1928 and 1956 as M.J. Farrell, as well as West End plays with John Perry, including Spring Meeting. After her husband’s death in 1946 she published nothing for two decades. She was later elected to Aosdána and died in April 1996. Good Behaviour, the first novel under her own name, was shortlisted for the 1981 Booker Prize.

Timeline of Molly Keane’s life

Works

Prizes