Tag: Joined-Up Thinking

Stevyn Colgan – Constable Colgan’s Connect-O-Scope | Review

May 30, 2017
Authors A-E (By Surname)Non-Fiction

Title: Constable Colgan’s Connect-O-Scope

Author: Stevyn Colgan

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 208

Rating: 4*/5

 

Stevyn Colgan - Constable Colgan's Connect-O-Scope

Stevyn Colgan – Constable Colgan’s Connect-O-Scope

 

Disclaimer: While I aim to be unbiased, Stevyn Colgan is an author friend of mine.

This book was a lot of fun, although it must have been irritating for everyone around me. It’s packed full of fun facts, and they’re so interesting that you can’t stop yourself from sharing them with your friends and family. That’s probably partly due to the fact that Colgan is one of the elves on Q.I.

In this book, he builds on the work that he did in Joined-Up Thinking by carrying out a number of investigations in which he tries to connect disparate subjects through a shared set of facts. It’s hard to explain, perhaps, but it all hangs on the whole six degrees of separation thing – except Colgan applies it to facts and information instead of to movie actors and Kevin Bacon.

Overall then, this is a fantastic book if you’re into facts and stuff. You’ll learn all sorts of weird stuff and you’ll discover that the world that we live in is more interconnected than you might previously have thought. It’ll blow your mind a few times. Read it.

 

Stevyn Colgan

Stevyn Colgan

 

Click here to buy Constable Colgan’s Connect-O-Scope.

Stevyn Colgan – Joined-Up Thinking | Review

April 18, 2016
Authors A-E (By Surname)Non-Fiction

Title: Joined-Up Thinking

Author: Stevyn Colgan

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 254

Rating: 8/10

 

Stevyn Colgan - Joined-Up Thinking

Stevyn Colgan – Joined-Up Thinking

 

I first heard about Stevyn Colgan after a friend suggested that I should invite him to be a speaker at the writers’ group that I’m organising. He’s a local writer who’s attained a certain level of success, winning praise from Stephen Fry and Q.I. creators John Lloyd and John Mitchinson – in fact, Colgan went on to become an Elf on the show, a term that’s used to describe their researchers.

Because of this, I already knew quite a lot of the facts that Colgan includes in the book – many of them were recycled and used within the show, and I’ve watched every episode multiple times. That said, it didn’t really matter, because Colgan’s point here is that everything’s connected – he’s effectively using the six degrees of separation with facts.

For example, he may begin by explaining how to hypnotise a chicken, then relate that to chicken nuggets, then relate that to the gold rush, then relate that to the song Gold by Spandau Ballet, and then it might transpire that the lead singer for Spandau Ballet (Tony Hadley) keeps pet chickens.

Now, that’s a hypothetical example, and Colgan is much better at making links than I am, but it does illustrate how the book is laid out. In fact, every single chapter, including the final chapter which houses the acknowledgements and dedications, is written in a loop. Must’ve been challenging to plan, but it’s well-executed.

 

Stevyn Colgan

Stevyn Colgan

 

Click here to buy Joined-Up Thinking.