Seamus Heaney – a life in pictures

Seamus Heaney (standing fourth from left), in a school photograph at his old school outside Bellaghy in County Londonderry Photograph: PA

Seamus Heaney, in an undated photograph Photograph: Jane Bown for the Observer

Death of a Naturalist (1966) Photograph: Faber

Seamus Heaney's annotated copy of Death of a Naturalist Photograph: Faber

Seamus Heaney being interviewed on the television program Aquarius, 1970 Photograph: ITV/Rex Features

Seamus Heaney, receives his Nobel Prize for literature from the Swedish king Carl XVI Gustaf, in December 1995 Photograph: Jan Collsi /PA

Seamus Heaney with his winning book, Beowulf at the Whitbread Book of the Year Awards, 1999 Photograph: Frank Baron for the Guardian

District and Circle (2006) won the TS Eliot prize Photograph: Faber and Faber

Seamus Heaney in his study at home in Dublin, 2007 Photograph: Eamonn McCabe for the Guardian

Seamus Heaney's writing room Photograph: Eamonn McCabe for the Guardian

A scene from Seamus Heaney's play Burial at Thebes. Brian Green appears as Creon and Gregoire A Meyer as a dancer in a production directed by Derek Walcott at Shakespeare's Globe in London, 2008 Photograph: Robbie Jack/Corbis

Seamus Heaney, with his wife Marie Devlin, at their home in Dublin, 2009 Photograph: Antonio Olmos for the Observer

Seamus Heaney before speaking at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, 2010 Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian