Front Row - 13/04/2009

To mark his 70th birthday, poet and Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney discusses his inspirations with Mark Lawson and reflects on how a stroke in 2006 affected his work. Heaney, whose first collection of poetry appeared in 1966, was born in Country Derry in Northern Ireland. He has twice won the Whitbread Book of the Year: for The Spirit Level in 1996 and Beowulf in 1999. Mark Lawson has interviewed Seamus Heaney in front of a live audience at Wyndhams Theatre in London's West End for the publication of Stepping Stones, a new book of interviews conducted with the poet by Dennis O'Driscoll, and again when he was awarded the David Cohen Prize for Literature. In this special edition of Front Row, featuring highlights from both interviews, Heaney discusses the inspiration for his poetry, reflects on the influence of The Troubles on his life and work, and how a stroke in 2006 affected his ability to write.