People

Stardom beckons for Keith

The University's best-selling author, Keith Brooke, is set for stardom this year with the recent publication of this third children's novel and plans for his first to be turned into a movie drawing a step closer.

Keith's new teenage horror story, Incubus, follows the story of Danny who fears he will grow up like his father, a convicted murderer. After finding his father's diary, Danny uncovers his dark thoughts and even darker secrets and starts to suspect a family spirit may be responsible for his father's actions.

Keith explained: 'Is my imagination getting even more dark and twisted? No, but Incubus is more of a psychological suspense story: I have tried to get more inside Danny's head and let the reader wonder whether or not he'll give in to temptation.

'The initial idea was both simple and, I think, pretty much universal. Much as we might love and respect our parents, I don't think any of us would want to turn out like them. I just took that observation to one extreme.'

Keith has been writing professionally for over ten years and is a well-known science fiction author under his own name. His children's novels, written under the pen name Nick Gifford, often reflect the places he knows. His first, Piggies, was set in a small town largely based on Brightlingsea, where Keith lives with his family, and his second, Flesh and Blood, took place in a thinly-disguised version of Dovercourt.

One of his best critics is his son: 'George has read and enjoyed all my children's books and is very useful, he corrected my mobile phone references in next year's novel which has just been delivered to Puffin.'

The production company Little Bird bought the film rights to Piggies in 2004 and with a screenplay now complete and BAFTA-winning director, Tinge Krishnan, on board, Keith hopes filming will start later this year.

The forthcoming publication of an adult novel, Genetopia, written under his real name means this will be a busy year for Keith but he has no plans to leave the University: 'The University has been very supportive of my outside activities as external demands have increased, and life has been a lot easier as a result.'

Wyvern has a copy of Incubus, signed by Keith in both his real name and his pen name, to give away to one lucky reader. For your chance to win this rare book, answer the following question: What is the title of Keith's second children's novel, written under the name Nick Gifford?

E-mail your answer to wyvern@essex.ac.uk, or send it to the Public Relations Office, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, Essex, CO4 3SQ. Please include your full answer, name and telephone number and/or e-mail address. Entries must be received by Monday 21 March.

Historians discuss black freedom struggle in USA

Two prominent US historians visited the University earlier this month to present a seminar on ‘Violence and non-violence in the black American freedom struggle’.

William Chafe (Dean of Duke University College of Arts and Sciences) and Timothy Tyson (Professor of Afro-American Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison) were the speakers at the event, organised by the Centre for Theoretical Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences and the Department of History.

An award-winning writer on the history of African American freedom movements in the 20th century south, Professor Tyson's most recent book Blood Done Sign My Name has been nominated for the non-fiction award in the prestigious US Book Critics Circle Awards.

William Chafe and Timothy Tyson at the University.
Photographed by Michael Sansom

New researchers on fellowship scheme

Two of three researchers appointed to posts at Essex through the new Research Council UK's Academic Fellowships scheme have joined the University.

Essex was awarded three Academic Fellowships in the Departments of Sociology, Electronic Systems Engineering (ESE) and Biological Sciences.

Dr Róisin Ryan-Flood joined Sociology following a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Geography at University College London.

Dr Ryan-Flood received her PhD in Gender Studies from the London School of Economics in 2003. Her PhD research consisted of a comparative study of lesbian parenting in Sweden and Ireland and was based on interviews with 68 lesbian parents in the two countries. Dr Ryan-Flood's future research plans include investigating new reproductive technologies and transnationalism, comparative work on gay fathers, and lesbian and gay migration.

Dr Nick Zakhleniuk, who works in the area of theory and mathematical modelling of semiconductor materials and electronic and optoelectronic devices, has been appointed in ESE.

Dr Zakhleniuk has previously worked at the University before as a Royal Society Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Phsyics and as a member of the Photonics Group in ESE. He has also worked at Marconi Optical Components and Bookham Technologies, been a Honorary Visiting Fellow at the University of York, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics. At Essex, he will be working with a team of researchers in the field of computational nanotechnology. They will work towards establishing new interdisciplinary research and teaching activity, with Biology and Accounting, Finance and Management, devoted to computational modelling of a variety of complex systems using advanced simulation software.

The third Academic Fellowship, in Biological Sciences, will be appointed for 1 October 2005. All those on the scheme receive £125,000 in funding over five years. During that period they carry out a significant body of research and undertake teaching, project management and outreach to schools to help develop skills appropriate to an academic position. After five years they become permanent members of staff.

Also in the printed February edition of Wyvern:

• Essex grad is youngest head
• Farewell to maths professor