Roy Foster

Seamus Heaney’s letters confirm that he really was as nice as he seemed

Not only did he reply eloquently to anyone who sent him a book or poem, he even wrote at courteous length to unknown, self-important curmudgeons

Seamus Heaney, photographed at the Edinburgh international Book Festival in 2002. [Getty Images]
  • Comments

  • The Letters of Seamus Heaney

    Christopher Reid

    Faber, pp. 820, £40

Seamus Heaney wrote letters everywhere – waiting for his car to be repaired at a country garage, sitting over a glass or more of Paddy late at night, and above all in aeroplanes, ‘pacing the pages against the pilot as he takes us in to Heathrow or Shannon’, as he wrote to a friend in 1995.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Read next

Trending

Fraser Nelson

What Sunak really said about lockdown

Fraser Nelson
In the dying days of Rishi Sunak’s leadership campaign, he gave an interview to The Spectator about lockdown which he was grilled on today at the Covid Inquiry. At the time he was speaking candidly: it was clear that Liz Truss would win the Tory leadership contest. Now, he is Prime Minister and has to

Because you read about depression

Also by Roy Foster

Latest

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in