A Fife scientist has scored an international hit with a book that aims to improve mental wellbeing.

Rachel Barr, from Dunfermline, is currently in bestseller lists around the world with How To Make Your Brain Your Best Friend.

As well as being available in the UK, through publishing giant Darling Kindersley, the book is flying off the shelves in Germany (where it’s called Brains & Balance), Spain, Ireland, the USA, Canada and even South Korea.

And while it’s already in the Top 10 in Ireland, How To Make Your Brain Your Best Friend is poised to top the book charts in Canada where Rachel is a PhD scientist at Quebec’s Université Laval – one of the world’s leading centres for neuroscientific research.

Neuroscientist Rachel Barr is having worldwide success with her first book.

placeholder image — Neuroscientist Rachel Barr is having worldwide success with her first book.

Rachel said: “It’s been quite hard to take in.

“I’ve been having a few ‘pinch-me’ moments. Writing a book is a very solitary pursuit. Often I’d be buried deep in research for months, only occasionally coming out of the lab.

“But since the book came out, it’s been a bit of a whirlwind, doing magazine and radio interviews, podcasts and press launches. It’s been quite a contrast.”

Rachel, has also been snapped up by the prestigious Lavin agency, which represents leading thinkers such as Naomi Klein, Isabel Allende, Salman Rushdie and Handmaid’s Tale author Margaret Atwood. It’s the world’s largest intellectual talent agency with a roster that also includes punk legend Patti Smith and movie director Spike Lee.

The former Dunfermline High School pupil told us: “I’m deeply honoured to be part of such an extraordinary organisation. Many of the people on Lavin’s books are personal heroes of mine, so it was incredibly special for me to be asked to join them.”

How To Make Your Brain Your Best Friend is written as a guide to a healthier, happier life using the very latest cutting-edge research in neuroscience.

In the book, Rachel sets out how best to build resilience and protect your wellbeing despite the frantic pace of modern life.

She said: “We’re being overwhelmed, daily, by huge amounts of information and stress. The advances in technology over the last quarter-century have been immense – but our brains, which have evolved slowly over thousands of years, don’t always thrive in those circumstances.

“The result is a huge upsurge in cases of anxiety and depression, particularly among young people.

“I wanted the book to be a bit of an antidote to all that, using the results of key scientific studies to offer a path back to a resilient, happy, healthy life.”

While some have described the book as “a masterpiece” one international reader, Zainab Geissah, wrote: “I read this book at a particularly significant time in my life.

“Keeping up with political events and trying to keep informed opinions is exhausting and a challenge to one’s faith in humanity.

“This book affirmed my optimistic perspective by rooting it in science.

“Rachel has a knack for explaining things in way that my genius friend would … I am simultaneously captivated by her words and also in awe of her ability to translate something that seems so complex.”

Another reader, Eliel Herlevi, wrote: “Everyone should read this book to survive in the modern world. Rachel is one of the best science communicators of today.”

Rachel was most recently back home over the summer when she came back to Scotland to record the audiobook version of How To Make Your Brain Your Best Friend.

She said: “It was so good to get the chance to visit family, have a walk in Pittencrieff Park and marvel, again, at just how beautiful Fife is.”

• How To Make Your Brain Your Best Friend is published by Darling Kindersley and is available at all good bookshops. It’s also available as an e-book and audiobook.