Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy I

This is one of Binchy's mid life novels which was very successful and which was made into a film in the 1990s. It was not a very good film. The novel is set in the late 50s, and the heroine is a rather plain girl called Benny (Bernadette) Hogan. She is the only child of doting parents, who live in a village called Knockglen, not too far from Dublin. Benny becomes friendly with a girl from her school Eve Malone, who is an orphan; her parents were of different faiths and eloped. Her mother died when she was born and her father who had a drink problem died soon after. Her maternal family, the Westwards were the Protestant landlords of the area and were not keen to take in an infant who would have to be reared as a Catholic, so she was finally taken care of by the local nuns who ran the school. Eve was happy in her unusual home, but she was pleased when she and Benny became friends. Benny's father was a bit disappointed to have no son to take on his family business, a mens tailors, so he takes on an apprentice Sean who moves into rooms over the shop. Sean is a bit of an Uriah Heep and the 2 girls dont like him. When they are 18 Benny is expected to go to University but there is no money to send Eve. She is instead sent to a convent in Dublin, where she will learn typing.. and she hates the idea.