Conville & Walsh

Conville & Walsh are delighted to announce the first popular science title by the eminent neuropsychologist, Professor Christine Temple: Picasso’s Brain. The book deal was signed by Jamie Joseph at Constable & Robinson, who recently joined to build a popular psychology list, having previously worked at Palgrave Macmillan and at the Royal Society.

Professor Christine Temple grew up in Edinburgh and then studied Psychology at the University of St Andrews, where she started working with her first cases of unusual brain development. Winning a scholarship to the USA, she acquired a Masters degree from UCLA, where she worked with war veterans, and so-called “split brain” patients, who had been given rare surgery as a treatment for epilepsy. She then returned to Oxford for her doctorate in Neuropsychology, later establishing the Developmental Neuropsychology Unit at the University of London, working with children with dyslexia, language disorders, face recognition problems, memory difficulties, and autism, as well as children and adults with unusual talents.

She became the youngest Professor of Psychology in the UK, when she was appointed to a chair at the age of 33. Most recently, she has led the Science and Engineering faculty at the University of Essex, where she was Pro Vice-Chancellor for six years. She has published two previous academic books on neuropsychology but is now particularly interested in the overlap between science and the arts.

Christine has spent her working life examining whether there is a biological basis to creativity, attempting to answer such questions as whether some are born with brains that predispose them to creativity. Are there specific ways in which such people think and act? Are the roots here environmental or genetic? Can we even understand the elements? The Necker Cube, left, provides an interesting insight: if you can see it easily in two perspectives - one pointing up and right, the other pointing down and left - you are more likely to be a creative person. Picasso’s brain, as this book will show, was one of the most astounding examples of the creative mind that the world has seen.

Picasso’s Brain is due to be delivered in February 2012, and all rights are available excluding UK & Commonwealth.