News at Eleven: However, it turns out that these interviews

did not take place. What happened, [Dennis] O'Driscoll explains, was that he sent [Seamus] Heaney long lists of possible questions and Heaney, having chosen which ones he wanted to answer, returned written replies. So the appearance of spontaneity is misleading. The questions were just lures to get Heaney going, and it might have been better to leave them out and simply join up his replies.

For all that, this is a book of rare stature, vivid and profound in seeking out the hiding places of Heaney's power.

from The Sunday Times: Stepping Stones: Interviews with Seamus Heaney
also The Guardian: 'To set the darkness echoing'

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