Magical Contagion

Katherine Cooper of Newcastle University investigates the phenomenon of Magical Contagion, the process by which an ordinary object takes on a special significance because it has been owned or handled by someone famous.

Katherine has been affected herself as she now owns the desk at which one of her favourite writers - Margaret Storm Jameson - once wrote.

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One of the New Generation Thinkers 2017. New Generation Thinkers is an annual competition run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select researchers at the start of their careers who can turn their fascinating research into stimulating television and radio programmes.