As part of Derry's bid for the UK City of Culture 2013, the evening went with a bang and further highlighted the city's cultural potential and talent.

Orla and Emer Devlin get their copies of Zoela's Stories signed by the author Dr Helena Schlindwein during Derry's City of Culture 2013 bid.

Author Dr Helena Schlindwein participating in Derry's City of Culture 2013 bid with her book launch, Zoela's Stories.

Author Dr Helena Schlindwein and members of the general public at the book launch her children's therapeutic stories, entitled Zoela's Stories.

Trials of Zoela’s stories were carried out at the University of Ulster to investigate the neurophysiological correlates of the calming and relaxation affects of Zoela’s stories.

These stories normally have a visible calming and relaxing effect on the listeners and it is hypothesized that the stories can be used as a therapeutic tool, especially for children. The purpose of the current study was to develop an experimental protocol involving measurement and analysis of brain activity levels via brainwaves recordings i.e., the electroencephalogram (EEG). It was expected that assessing a person’s level of relaxation through EEG may enable us to determine, qualitatively and quantitatively, the effects of Zoela’s stories on children. The results did indicate that Zoela’s stories did have a calming and relaxing affect on the study participants.

The results show that there was substantial slowing of EEG beta activity and an increase in EEG alpha band activity across the subjects whilst listening to Zoela’s children’s stories and the subjects reported that they experienced a transition into a more relaxed state during the stories. These findings support the hypothesis that Zoela’s stories do have calming and relaxing qualities however further trials are required across a large group of study participants to determine if there is a significant difference in the calming/relaxation qualities of Zoela’s stories compared to other stories for children.

Pictured above (from left to right): Janice Tracey, Chamber of Commerce and Chair of Women in Enterprise, Dr. Helena Schlindwein, author of Zoela's Stories, Louise Magee and husband John, International Business Initiative.



Readers on the day: pictured above with Dr. Helena Schlindwein are Aoife Schlindwein and Mary Murphy, well know writer and broadcaster, who gave the first public readings of a selection of the stories.



A satisfied customer aged three enjoys the buffet whilst listening to the stories.