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The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Alan Kennedy (view source)
Revision as of 16:06, 4 January 2015
, 16:06, 4 January 2015no edit summary
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|name=Siobhan MacAndrew
|verb= said
|comment=I loved 'Oscar and Lucy' and wonder what you think?
I notice that you have spoken to Kennedy before - but as you can see below 'Oscar' is a very different book ...
here's my review for Amazon ...
A surprising story from a surprising man
‘Revelatory’ doesn’t even come close for this reader. This book documents the discovery of personal and national secrets on a grand scale. Still more satisfying is that this is one eminent researcher applying his gifts to investigate the life and work of another.
Especially intriguing for me is that I am a former student from Kennedy’s own Psychology Department in the University of Dundee. Thus I found this intensely private man transformed on the page from an elder statesman of his field to a tentative yet dedicated young man trusting to fate to realise his aspirations. Times being as they were he also had to accommodate to the whims of senior academic figures. Since I have come to know him as a senior figure himself I can report he no longer demonstrates this characteristic.
His respect for those who went before him is palpable and he writes with understanding and compassion about the protagonists. He is tough on himself and his own decisions and gives huge credit for those who taught and employed him. After a lifetime as a professional writer Kennedy’s prose is elegant and easy to read. I bounded through the book in a few hours often open mouthed at what it contained.
This book will appeal to those interested in History of Science, Psychology, the ‘life scientific’, local history, the relationship between academics and WWII (and of course former and current Psychology students of the University of Dundee).
As for me? I am touched not only by what I have discovered about Kennedy as a person, educator and academic but also by the history of the department in which I studied. I walk taller as a result.
best wishes
Siobhan
}}
[[Category:Interviews|Kennedy, Alan]] [[Category:Alan Kennedy]]