In honour of the late Maeve Binchy’s love of travel and writing, UCD has launched a new award to encourage students to follow in her footsteps.

The inaugural Maeve Binchy Travel Award, worth €4,000, was set up to fund students to pursue a novel travel trip to enhance their writing skills.

It was Binchy’s adventures around the world that led the acclaimed author to write many of her celebrated books.

UCD master of fine arts student Henrietta McKervey was the first to receive the annual award yesterday.

“I’m so pleased to win. I hope to do justice to her love of travel and meeting people,” she said.

Ms Kervey (44) said she read her first Binchy novel Light a Penny Candle, which was published in 1982, at 13.

She said she planned to travel the BBC Radio 4 Shipping Forecast route of weather stations around the British Isles from Norway to Iceland.