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PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT AND MEDIA EVENTS English academic Andrew Meehan releases novel The publication of this essay came in advance of Andrew’s forthcoming appearance at the Aye Write Festival, where Andrew was due to read from and discuss the novel. However, due to the Covid-19, this event was cancelled for 2020. Further to this, Andrew was interviewed again by The Herald Magazine in April 2020 to discuss the books and poetry that shaped him.
English and Creative Writing academic Andrew Meehan appeared on BBC Radio Scotland’s Afternoon Show to discuss the publication of his latest novel, The Mystery of Love, a witty re-imagining of the relationship between Oscar and Constance Wilde. The book was released on February 6th and has already been receiving some very impressive newspaper reviews. The Mystery of Love, Andrew’s second novel, is a fictional account of the marriage of Oscar and Constance Wilde and was published by Head of Zeus Books. In their review of the novel, The Independent wrote: “It would take an audacious writer not just to put words into the mouth of Ireland’s best-known wit, but also to reimagine the relationship between Oscar Wilde and his wife Constance. Andrew Meehan has already proved himself a brilliantly inventive writer with his 2017 debut, One Star Awake. [...] The story of Oscar and Constance has long been compelling: under Meehan’s astute eye, even more so. Yet even if The Mystery of Love wasn’t written about these two enchanting figures, it’s a wonderful read in its own right.” The Herald magazine featured an essay from Strathclyde Creative Writing academic Andrew Meehan in their most recent edition on Saturday March 7th. In the essay, Andrew shared the emotional story that informed the writing of his new novel, The Mystery of Love.
BBC Horizon – The Great British Intelligence Test Have you ever wondered how intelligent you are, and whether it’s possible to boost your brain power? In February, Dr Louise Nicholls, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, was interviewed as part of an special episode of BBC Horizon, the BBC’s flagship science programme. The BBC has asked the nation to complete a series of online tests, looking at how well we can process and remember different types of information, such as words and visual patterns. After completing the tests, which takes around 30 minutes, participants receive an overview of their performance, and how it stacks up relative to everyone else who took part. In the programme, Louise explains working memory, which is our ability to process and temporarily retain information moment-tomoment, and crucial in everyday life. She describes spatial working memory in detail, the ability to take in and remember spatial locations and relationships. This ability is involved in a variety of daily activities, such as driving, or planning the best route to walk to a particular location, for example. Participants in the studio played a location memory game, which taps into this ability. They were shown a series of spatial locations, one after the other, and then asked to move around the locations in the same sequence. This is a task that always proves challenging! The programme also addresses different mental training or lifestyle factors that can possibly benefit our brain power, such as the potential impacts of video gaming. Some evidence exists to suggest that video gaming can hone spatial working memory
The HaSS Research & Impact Bulletin [ People & Society - Spring 2020, Issue No.6 ]
