I am always dubious when a book offers to explain the works of... I believe that if the works concerned are worth their salt, they should stand by themselves and, that the short cut of being fed with an acceptable opinion about someone's magnum opus is the worst of all worlds: I want my own view. This probably explains why this is the first of a large series of 'Writers and Their Works', that I have read.

I need not have worried, Andrew Murphy is much too wise to pump an opinion into his audience. This book is packed with background information upon Seamus Heaney's life and the influences bearing upon him at the time at which each poem was written. The presentation is neutral as to whether these are great poems, or otherwise and, whilst Heaney's work does stand alone, there is an added enjoyment from understanding some of the references within the poems.

It may sound like a backhanded compliment when I say that this book felt longer than its ninety-two pages, but I do not mean to imply that it dragged, but rather that each page was packed with valuable information and that one could easily read a tome stretching to a thousand pages and come away with not a jot more feeling for Seamus Heaney and his oeuvre.

I cannot, as yet, recommend the series, as I mentioned above, this is my first experience of same but, you can believe that I am eagerly looking to acquire other titles as soon as possible..... ( )