Book programmes on Sky TV NZ November

EDNA O'BRIEN: LIFE, STORIES

Friday 6 November, 9.00pm

Artist Biography/Documentary

Based on a series of frank, moving and entertaining interviews with Irish writer Edna O'Brien and her two sons Carlo and Sasha Gebler, this film offers a privileged glimpse of O'Brien's more private life, her writing process and rituals – a fascinating portrait of a woman whose infinite variety and ageless spirit make her an icon at home and abroad. Edna O'Brien's life was, and still is, one lived in technicolour. She was a key figure in the social and literary whirl of 60s and 70s London and is probably the only Irish novelist who credits the taking of LSD with influencing her prose style in the early 70s. The documentary touches on tales of the writer's social encounters with many of that period's biggest names, including Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, Elizabeth Taylor and Robert Mitchum. But all the while, in her life and in her work O'Brien was dealing with a complex emotional life, including her tangled relationship with her parents and her ambivalence towards Ireland. The resulting film gives unprecedented insight, encompassing the sweep of a long career, into one of the great survivors in Irish literature.

SEAMUS HEANEY: OUT OF THE MARVELLOUS

Monday 9 November, 8.00pm

Literature/Poetry

A portrait of one of the greatest English-language poets of his generation, this joyful and penetrating documentary was made with the late Seamus Heaney's unprecedented collaboration. The film explores his relationship with wife Marie, as well as following him to Harvard, New York and London to readings, signings and public interviews. Offering compelling insights into the working life of a major writer, it digs deep into the rich store of Heaney's poetry to reveal a man who lived his life fully; someone who used his gifts to give expression to the great themes in all our lives – love, loss and longing – and managed to combine the simplicity of a farmer's son from County Derry with the sophistication of a major artist.

W.B. YEATS: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN

Monday 23 November, 7.30pm

Literature/Poetry

This documentary by award-winning director Maurice Sweeney concentrates on the later work of the great poet and the themes that inspired him as an ageing man. In Ireland, Yeats is rightly regarded as the poet laureate of the new nation. In Britain he is regarded as a romantic, Irish dreamer. But the reality of his life and work after Ireland had won independence was a good deal earthier, and a good deal more interesting. In looking at Yeats' later life and work, the film reveals a very different Yeats to the poet taught in school.

THE BOOK CLUB (2015 Season)

Continues on Thursdays from 5 November, 8.00pm

Literature/Conversation

Hosted by Jennifer Byrne, with regular panellists Marieke Hardy and Jason Steger. This month’s episodes are:

Thursday 5 November: Perfume: The Story of a Murder by Patrick Suskind & One of Us by Asne Seierstad.

Thursday 12 November: This Sweet Sickness by Patricia Highsmith & Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee.

Thursday 19 November: Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant by Roz Chast & Preparation for the Next Life by Atticus Lish.

Thursaday 26 November: Undermajordomo Minor by Patrick deWitt & Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift.