Joined-Up Thinking
Encyclopedia
Joined-Up Thinking is the first book by writer and artist Stevyn Colgan
. It is based loosely upon the idea of Six Degrees of Separation
first put forward by Frigyes Karinthy
and later explored by Stanley Milgram
and Richard Wiseman
, in that everything and everyone in the world can be connected in some way. The book takes a light-hearted and humorous series of 'cyclic journeys through the land of trivia'. What marks the book as different to previous books of trivia is that each chapter or 'Round' takes the reader along a chain of interconnected facts ending, ultimately, back at the first fact in the chain. There are 30 of these 'journeys' in the book which are then all linked together in 'The Great Big Joined-Up Index' where Colgan shows the interconnectedness between facts in different Rounds.
Colgan recently created a brand new Round for The Times
called The Sarah Palindrome to mark the 2008 US elections.
in Britain on 3 October 2008. The book received favourable comments from both Stephen Fry
and John Mitchinson
of Quite Interesting Ltd, co-author (with John Lloyd
) of The Book of General Ignorance
.
"I found myself strangely fascinated and somewhat dizzy. Most impressive" - Stephen Fry.
"The book that nails that odd, slightly unnerving feeing that everything really is connected" - John Mitchinson.
The paperback edition was released on 18th September 2009.
'Dizzily intriguing' - The Bookseller
'This is not a stocking filler - this is a real book. Buy several copies and keep one' - Daily Telegraph
'Quite simply the best way to spend time when not shopping, sleeping or preparing food' - Tony Hawks (author of Around Ireland with a Fridge)
'Can I recommend a book? It’s Joined-Up Thinking by Stevyn Colgan. The author shares my love of trivia’s interconnectedness - far from being ‘random info’, the facts in our brain only come to light because some other fact reminds us of them. It’s this quality that made me love the book - you almost want to have a conversation with it. For instance when it revealed that Charlie Chaplin was born on 16th April 1889, I wanted to say ‘that was only four days before the man he played (in all but name) in The Great Dictator (ie Adolf Hitler). The book’s packed with great info, from the derivation of the phrase ‘letting the cat out of the bag’ to the name for the thin bits of a cricket bail. Spigots, since you ask' - Mark Mason (author of The Importance of being Trivial)
'If you've ever looked at the Eiffel Tower and wondered how it's related to Dracula, then Stevyn Colgan is your man. Yes, it's trivia porn' - London Lite
'He connects each piece of his trivia puzzle in a concise, chatty, easy to follow, even logical, manner. This free-flowing style does not, thankfully, lend itself to pause and evaluation, but does allow for a great deal of chuckling and chin-stroking. This is the sort of book that you will read and then spend the next month or so scratching your head and wondering just how it is, exactly, you know that avocados are poisonous, that indigo is really just a shade of violet, or that Wilma Flintstone had two maiden names, Pebble or Slaghoople, depending on which episode you watched, or that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair owns a telephone that resembles a Harley-Davidson. He is the master of the trivial, the collector and cataloguer of the forgotten and inane - but no matter how worthless and unnecessary the information, Colgan has the knack of making it all sound intensely fascinating' - New Zealand Herald
'Stevyn Colgan has a theory; everything in the world can be connected through 'six degrees of information'. Trying to prove it takes us up some strange alleys - in the first chapter we go from Sir Isaac Newton inventing the colour indigo to 2007's most popular day for marriages - but his engaging style means we don't get stuck down the road of intellectual whimsy' - Maxim
'It's a very smart style to a trivia book, and will I am sure be one of the hits of the forthcoming season' - The Bookbag
‘People who know me are aware of a particular knack I have of being able to jump across subjects and back without losing a heartbeat. Stevyn Colgan's book, 'Joined-Up Thinking', is a variation on this which I could well see being turned into a pub quiz or even a TV show. The latter could be even more of a possibility as Colgan has connections to the 'QI' BBC TV show. You're going to walk away from this book knowing a lot more than when you started.’ - SF Crows Nest
'The premise of the book is simple - the surprising connections between seemingly random and unrelated 'things', looped around so you keep meeting your tail. How Colgan manages to find all these connections, unravel them and create something coherent and entertaining out of them is beyond me. But I'm glad he took the time, as the result is vastly fascinating and had my mind whirring round after itself for hours - immense fun!' - Falmouth People
Stevyn Colgan
Stephen Mark "Stevyn" Colgan is a British writer, artist and speaker. Colgan's first book Joined-Up Thinking was published on 3 October 2008. He is a contributor to the BBC TV series QI and the regular QI Annuals.-Family:...
. It is based loosely upon the idea of Six Degrees of Separation
Six degrees of separation
Six degrees of separation refers to the idea that everyone is on average approximately six steps away, by way of introduction, from any other person on Earth, so that a chain of, "a friend of a friend" statements can be made, on average, to connect any two people in six steps or fewer...
first put forward by Frigyes Karinthy
Frigyes Karinthy
Frigyes Karinthy was a Hungarian author, playwright, poet, journalist, and translator. He was the first proponent of the six degrees of separation concept, in his 1929 short story, Chains . Karinthy remains one of the most popular Hungarian writers...
and later explored by Stanley Milgram
Stanley Milgram
Stanley Milgram was an American social psychologist most notable for his controversial study known as the Milgram Experiment. The study was conducted in the 1960s during Milgram's professorship at Yale...
and Richard Wiseman
Richard Wiseman
Richard Wiseman is Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom.Wiseman started his professional life as a magician, before graduating in Psychology from University College London and obtaining a Ph.D...
, in that everything and everyone in the world can be connected in some way. The book takes a light-hearted and humorous series of 'cyclic journeys through the land of trivia'. What marks the book as different to previous books of trivia is that each chapter or 'Round' takes the reader along a chain of interconnected facts ending, ultimately, back at the first fact in the chain. There are 30 of these 'journeys' in the book which are then all linked together in 'The Great Big Joined-Up Index' where Colgan shows the interconnectedness between facts in different Rounds.
Colgan recently created a brand new Round for The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
called The Sarah Palindrome to mark the 2008 US elections.
Publication history
First published by MacmillanMacmillan Publishers
Macmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.-History:...
in Britain on 3 October 2008. The book received favourable comments from both Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
and John Mitchinson
John Mitchinson
For the English tenor, see John Mitchinson .For the Bishop, see John Mitchinson .John Mitchinson is the head of research for the British television panel game QI, and is also the managing director of Quite Interesting Limited. He is co-writer of the QI series of books with the show's creator John...
of Quite Interesting Ltd, co-author (with John Lloyd
John Lloyd (writer)
John Hardress Wilfred Lloyd CBE is a British comedy writer and television producer. He is the great nephew of John Hardress Lloyd.-Early life and career:...
) of The Book of General Ignorance
The Book of General Ignorance
The Book of General Ignorance is the first in a series of books based on the final round in the intellectual British panel game QI, written by series-creator John Lloyd and head-researcher John Mitchinson, to help spread the QI philosophy of curiosity to the reading public...
.
"I found myself strangely fascinated and somewhat dizzy. Most impressive" - Stephen Fry.
"The book that nails that odd, slightly unnerving feeing that everything really is connected" - John Mitchinson.
The paperback edition was released on 18th September 2009.
Critical reception
Response to the book has been positive to date.'Dizzily intriguing' - The Bookseller
'This is not a stocking filler - this is a real book. Buy several copies and keep one' - Daily Telegraph
'Quite simply the best way to spend time when not shopping, sleeping or preparing food' - Tony Hawks (author of Around Ireland with a Fridge)
'Can I recommend a book? It’s Joined-Up Thinking by Stevyn Colgan. The author shares my love of trivia’s interconnectedness - far from being ‘random info’, the facts in our brain only come to light because some other fact reminds us of them. It’s this quality that made me love the book - you almost want to have a conversation with it. For instance when it revealed that Charlie Chaplin was born on 16th April 1889, I wanted to say ‘that was only four days before the man he played (in all but name) in The Great Dictator (ie Adolf Hitler). The book’s packed with great info, from the derivation of the phrase ‘letting the cat out of the bag’ to the name for the thin bits of a cricket bail. Spigots, since you ask' - Mark Mason (author of The Importance of being Trivial)
'If you've ever looked at the Eiffel Tower and wondered how it's related to Dracula, then Stevyn Colgan is your man. Yes, it's trivia porn' - London Lite
'He connects each piece of his trivia puzzle in a concise, chatty, easy to follow, even logical, manner. This free-flowing style does not, thankfully, lend itself to pause and evaluation, but does allow for a great deal of chuckling and chin-stroking. This is the sort of book that you will read and then spend the next month or so scratching your head and wondering just how it is, exactly, you know that avocados are poisonous, that indigo is really just a shade of violet, or that Wilma Flintstone had two maiden names, Pebble or Slaghoople, depending on which episode you watched, or that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair owns a telephone that resembles a Harley-Davidson. He is the master of the trivial, the collector and cataloguer of the forgotten and inane - but no matter how worthless and unnecessary the information, Colgan has the knack of making it all sound intensely fascinating' - New Zealand Herald
'Stevyn Colgan has a theory; everything in the world can be connected through 'six degrees of information'. Trying to prove it takes us up some strange alleys - in the first chapter we go from Sir Isaac Newton inventing the colour indigo to 2007's most popular day for marriages - but his engaging style means we don't get stuck down the road of intellectual whimsy' - Maxim
'It's a very smart style to a trivia book, and will I am sure be one of the hits of the forthcoming season' - The Bookbag
‘People who know me are aware of a particular knack I have of being able to jump across subjects and back without losing a heartbeat. Stevyn Colgan's book, 'Joined-Up Thinking', is a variation on this which I could well see being turned into a pub quiz or even a TV show. The latter could be even more of a possibility as Colgan has connections to the 'QI' BBC TV show. You're going to walk away from this book knowing a lot more than when you started.’ - SF Crows Nest
'The premise of the book is simple - the surprising connections between seemingly random and unrelated 'things', looped around so you keep meeting your tail. How Colgan manages to find all these connections, unravel them and create something coherent and entertaining out of them is beyond me. But I'm glad he took the time, as the result is vastly fascinating and had my mind whirring round after itself for hours - immense fun!' - Falmouth People