Former doctoral student Jon Phelan has accepted an offer to publish a research monograph based on his PhD thesis, under the working title ‘Reading Between the Lines: Investigating the Cognitive Value of Literary Fiction’, with Routledge in their Literature and Education series.

Jon argues, following his PhD thesis with the Open University, that one gains cognitively through an engagement with the literary work’s literary devices (metaphor, irony, ambiguity). This is often missed in the debate, which tends to focus on the fictional status of literary fiction. The reviews of the book proposal said that ‘the book is original’ and ‘promises to reinvigorate a central debate’…’it has significant interdisciplinary appeal’. Jon notes that he is indebted to Professor Derek Matravers and Professor Sophie Grace Chappell for their continued encouragement with the project, to the commissioning editor Ms. Emilie Coin, and to the series editors Dr. David Aldridge and Dr. Andrew Green from Brunel University, London.