Robert McCrum in Conversation

With Martin Doyle

Presented in association with the John O’Connor Writing School

In the fascinating and insightful article, ‘A Life of Rhyme’, published in the Guardian in 2009, Robert McCrum interviewed his friend Seamus Heaney.  During the interview, Heaney spoke about the stroke he had suffered in 2006 and the feeling that the time following it seemed like a ‘closing cadence’.

In 1995, at the age of 42, Robert McCrum had suffered his own dramatic and near-fatal stroke, which became the subject of his acclaimed memoir My Year Off. Ever since that life-changing event, McCrum has lived unavoidably aware of his own mortality and his new book, Every Third Thought is an enthralling exploration of what it means to approach the end and how to avoid living life as if it is that ‘closing cadence’. 

Robert McCrum was born and educated in Cambridge. For nearly 20 years he was editor-in-chief of the publishers Faber & Faber, where he met Seamus Heaney. From 1996 to 2008, he was literary editor of the Observer of which he remains an associate editor. 

Robert McCrum will be in conversation with Martin Doyle, Books Editor of the Irish Times, talking about his new book, his life and career, his literary response to his own mortality and his friendship with, and memories of Seamus Heaney.

For more information and to book tickets, please click here.