Memory Craft

Improve Your Memory with the Most Powerful Methods in History

Lynne Kelly

Groundbreaking anthropologist and memory champion Lynne Kelly reveals how we can use ancient and traditional mnemonic methods to enhance and expand our memory.

Our brain is a muscle. Like our bodies, it needs exercise. In the last few hundred years, we have stopped training our memories and we have lost the ability to memorize large amounts of information—something our ancestors could do with ease.

After discovering that the true purpose of monuments like Easter Island and Stonehenge were to act as memory palaces, Kelly takes this knowledge and introduces us to the best memory techniques humans have ever devised, from ancient times and the Middle Ages to methods used by today’s memory athletes. A memory champion herself, Kelly tests all these methods and demonstrate the extraordinary capacity of our brains at any age.

For anyone who needs to memorize a speech or a script, learn anatomy or a foreign language, or prepare for an exam, Memory Craft offers proven techniques and simple strategies for anyone who has trouble remembering names or dates, or for older people who want to keep their minds agile. In addition to getting in touch with our own human and anthropological foundations, Memory Craft shows how all things mnemonic can be playful, creative, and fun.

Dr. Lynne Kelly is a science writer and an Honorary Research Associate at La Trobe University. She lives in Melbourne, Australia and is the author of Knowledge and Power in Prehistoric Societies (Cambridge).

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Endorsements & Reviews

"The narrative covers the ground well and entertains as it travels. Of benefit to anyone seeking to remember a scrap of information for more than a couple of minutes." Kirkus Reviews

"Memory Craft is the best practical book on memory training." Anthony Metivier, host of the Magnetic Memory podcast

"Memory Craft is captivating and well worth reading and re-reading. You will discover a wide variety of inventive, fun to use and surpris­ingly powerful techniques that may very well end up changing your life." Francis Blondin, two times Canadian Memory Champion

"Memory Craft is essential reading for anyone interested in memory improvement techniques. Highly recommended." Josh Cohen, co-founder, artofmemory.com

"Memory Craft provides a comprehensive understanding of man's earliest and most powerful survival tool, memory." Dominic O'Brien, eight times World Memory Champion

"Weaving the deep history of memory techniques along with the techniques themselves, Memory Craft is a memory book like no other I’ve ever read." Nelson Dellis, four-time U.S. Memory Champion

"A tour de force in memory techniques ranging from medieval mnemonics to the latest strategies and heuristics used by world-leading memory champions. The book shows that memory can be learned and trained with a wealth of examples and routines that can be practised by anyone." Professor Todd Landman, Pro Vice Chancellor of the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Nottingham

"Dr Lynne Kelly explores the ancient memory techniques that exploit our brain's natural instinct to ground knowledge in landscapes, movement, objects, stories and songs. Lynne shares her practical experience with using these methods to teach us how we too can memorise anything from the history of the world to learning a foreign language. Along the way we gain profound insights into how these "memory crafts" can not only inform educational practices, but also potentially protect our memories from decline as we age." Dr Meredith McKague, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne

"Entertaining, educational, fun and has easy to follow methods so everyone can learn how to increase their own memory capacity." Carolyn Tavener, Principal, Malmsbury Primary School

"Readers can readily implement her ideas and train themselves to use these mnemonic devices just as the ancient ones may have done so long ago." Shelf Awareness (Praise for The Memory Code)