Grace Wynne-Jones

Life
b. Ireland [q. dates]; dg. Church of Ireland clergyman and raised in a much-loved rectory and its lands on the Morning Star river [An Chamaoir], Co. Limerick; her mother was adopted in England and brought up by the de Vere family at Curragh Chase, Co. Limerick; lived in Africa, California (Palo Alto) and England; settled in Dalkey, Co. Dublin; author of Ordinary Miracles (1996) and other ‘wise, sharp and witty’ novels incl. Wise Follies (1998), and Ready Or Not? (2003) and The Truth Club (2005); worked as a journalist; also a radio play, Ebb-Tide (RTE & BBC4; q.d.); wrote and produced a documentary on Tara Hill for Newstalk, 2008; radio documentary Lights, Stop Messin"' (Newstalk Feb. 2011); publishes in Kindle and paperback; predeceased by a brother Vere in 2006.

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Works
Ordinary Miracles (NY: Simon and Schuster 1997), 269pp.; Ready or Not? Love [Life and Other Complications] (Dublin, Park West: Tivoli 2003), Wise Follies NY Simon & Schuster 1998), and Do. (London: Headline Accent 2007), 320pp.; The Truth Club (Dublin: Tivoli 2005).

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Criticism
Anne Dempsey, interview-article, Irish Times (15 July 2005) - available online; accessed 10.09.2023; see extract on her mother - as infra.].

Books Ireland (Nov. 1996), notive on Ordinary Miracles: concerns a bored wife who has an affair, buys a car, moves to Ibiza, discovers love after a death; quotes: ‘I’m not going to let despair land splat in my mind this afternoon - like tomato sauce after a misjudged thump.’ (BI, Nov. 1996, p.323.)

Kith & Kin? May be related to Nancy Wynne-Jones (d.2006) who was married to the Irish sculptor Conor Fallon (1939-2007), brother of Brian Fallon [q.v.].

Quotations
Anne Dempsey, ‘The cost of keeping the family secret’ [interview-article], in The Irish Times (15 July 2005) - remarks on her mother: ‘“My mother, Joan de Vere, was born in Eastbourne in 1913 and adopted privately,” Wynne-Jones says. “Both the Bishop of Durham and the Bishop of Bath and Wells were involved in the adoption, and she was known as ‘castle baby’, as she lived for a time in Durham Castle while they decided what would happen to her. Finally, she was adopted by the daughter of the Bishop of Durham and her husband, Stephen de Vere, and went to live in Curragh Chase, their ancestral home in Co Limerick. The house was later burned down in an accidental fire, and is just a shell today, but the grounds are open to the public. [...] My mother told me she was adopted one day when I was about nine or 10. I remember we were driving along in the car. It changes things. I was disappointed and felt dispossessed but glad she felt able to tell me. I used to love going to Curragh Chase, but after that I felt less part of it. But my mother adored it and wrote a booklet, The Abiding Enchantment of Curragh Chase, and other articles which I think had a role in helping to bring the estate to prominence and in supporting its current preservation.’” Further mentions that her mother wrote about her adoption in Ruin Reconciled: A Memoir of Anglo-Ireland (Lilliput 1990), published posthumously. (Available at Irish Times - online; accessed 10.09.2023.)

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