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Feature Writing/Radio

Communication, in all its forms, has been my life long interest. I engage in many types of writing, from academic writing to fiction, travel writing, journalism and report writing. I view these as different forms of storytelling, in which the author needs to engage, persuade, cajole, titillate, educate, convince and draw the audience along with her, so that author and reader become co-travellers.

Radio features, of course, are also storytelling, but with the added layers of communication through accent, silence, tone of voice, the interaction between speakers and so on.  Being a qualitative researcher was a great help when making radio programmes with the late and great Nigel Acheson as producer. As a researcher you learn rapport, to actively listen, to understand the meaning contained in the words, to interpret people's tone of voice, their silences and their gestures.  These skills can be relevant in any situation. It is a cliche that most of us want to be heard but often we do not listen. Listening attentively to people and respecting what they have to say, sometimes unleashes quite extraordinary stories.

Published articles and radio features

"Monty the Penguin: Why do we like John Lewis Christmas advert so much?"    (November 2014)                                     http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/monty-penguin-like-john-lewis-4586901

"The times they aren't a changing", Article in Mensa magazine on the changing face of rock festivals, February 2014

Panel contributor on BBC Radio 4 The Philosopher's Stone, on 'Exploitation' 6th August '13

"Hands across the water", Article in Mensa Magazine based on my visit to the Burma Delta (February 2013). My aim was to see the rebuilding efforts in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, which devastated  most of the delta region, including most of the region's schools. Published May issue

"Photograph of a jumping cat, taken in the Nga Phe Kyaung monastery, in Burma, Published in the Sunday Times, 23.02.13

"Technology and the brain", on ABC Radio, Sydney, Australia, http://blogs.abc.net.au/nsw/2011/09/the-plastic-brain-with-dr-sheila-keegan.html , September, 2011

"Back on the hippie trail", Article in Mensa Magazine, August 2011

"Is happiness possible in our consumer-driven society?, Indie magazine, ICG, June 2011

"Are we losing our minds?", article on Research website, 16th June, 2011

"Chasing the rainbow", AQR, In Brief, January/February 2011

"Lessons on Happiness from Bhutan, Royal Mail Contact Magazine, January '11

"Lessons for Life", Mensa Magazine, April 2010

"Routes to happiness", Psychologies Magazine, January 2008

"Finding the secret of Happiness", Mensa Magazine, December, 2007

"The psychology of money", BBC London, hour long feature, 2007

"The Bunnykins Business", BBC Radio 4 programme, written and presented by Sheila Keegan, June 2003. Link

"Seeing the world", Mensa magazine, May 2000

"Pictures of Derry", The Irish Post, 2000 

"Travelling with my daughter", article on Freeserve website 2000

"The Derry bomb makers", Mensa magazine, February 2000

"It's my story: Loving men living lies", BBC Radio 4 programme, written and presented by Sheila Keegan, September 2000. Link

"Cambodia, a surface serenity", in "Women Travel, a Rough Guide Special", Rough Guides, 1999

"Carolyn came too", in Women Travel, a Rough Guide Special, Rough Guides, 1999

"Pictures of Derry", in BBC Radio 4 programme, written and presented by Sheila Keegan, August 1999, on the Imperial War Museum website http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80118095 

"What happened to the child bomb makers?",  Focus Ulster 1969 in The Sunday Telegraph, 4th July 1999

"Would you take your child out of school to go around the world?", BBC Family Life magazine, May 1998

"Cheque out", Mensa magazine, Sept 1998

"Palatial Riches", Trailfinders magazine Winter 1995/6

Plus

Photographs published in The British Journal of Photography (BJP) magazine Jan 1999; The Telegraph, October 1998; Mensa magazine, 2000-2015,  OK! Magazine

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