The Lives of the Saints

From A Long Long Way, his Booker shortlisted novel about the Irish soldiers who fought for Britain during the First World War to his Donal McCann starring hit-play, The Steward of Christendom; from his first Costa Book of the Year novel The Secret Scripture to his second, Days Without End, a decade later, Sebastian Barry's writing career has been as long and varied as it has extraordinary.

Intimate, revealing and generous of heart, these three lectures - written and delivered as part of his three year tenure as the Laureate for Irish fiction - reflect on his life and career so far, some of the formative moments and people he's met along the way, and the ongoing importance of creativity.

'Nobody writes like, nobody takes lyrical risks like, nobody pushes the language, and the heart, and the two together, quite like Sebastian Barry does.' - Ali Smith