Stepping Stones. Interviews with Seamus Heaney. London: Faber & Faber, 2008. First Edition. Pp xxix, 524. Illustrated with photographs. Lght age-toning to contents pages, otherwise a fine copy in pictorial dust jacket.

Signed presentation inscription from Heaney to Rosemary Goad dated 6 November 2008 to title, written in the form of a 10-line verse in rhyming couplets, beginning:

‘With love, on publication day, To Rose, to wish you happy birthday – You, still the highest on the list, “The goad we never kick against.” Who helped to lay stones in that stream I crossed from Derry into dream… ‘

Rosemary Goad, the first female director of Faber and Faber.

The conversations are beautifully and meticulously supplemented with never-before-published vintage photographs from the poet’s personal archives, a Chronology, a Biographical Glossary, and an invaluable Index. ‘In response to firm but subtle questioning from Dennis O’Driscoll, Seamus Heaney sheds a personal light on his work (poems, essays, translations, plays) and on the artistic and ethical challenges he faced during the dark years of the Ulster Troubles. Combining the spontaneity of animated conversation with the considered qualities of the best autobiographical writing, ‘Stepping Stones’ provides an original, diverting, and absorbing store of reflections, opinions, and recollections.’