Author:Harriet Harvey Wood,A. S. Byatt
This fascinating anthology introduces us to a wide range of arguments on the subject of memory, the thread that holds our lives, and our history, together. Arranged in themed sections, the book includes specially commissioned essays by the editors and by writers with expertise in different fields - from 'Memory and Evolution' by Patrick Bateson to 'Memory and Forgetting' by the biographer Richard Holmes, and an account of the chemistry of the brain by Steven Rose.
Complementing the essays are a rich selection of extracts from writers and thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle, Montaigne and Shakespeare, Wordsworth and Proust, Jorge Luis Borges and Haruki Murakami. Stimulating, provocative, funny or profoundly moving, Memory is a book to treasure - and remember.
A book for the magpies among us, designed to be dipped in to time after time ... absorbing anthology
—— Sunday HeraldThe appeal of this scholarly and thoughtful anthology is that it juxtaposes glancing insights with painstaking research... the two introductions... display something of the combined tastes and talents that have gone into this fascinating compilation
—— Penelope Lively , Financial TimesRich and thought-provoking... What is appealing about this anthology (and I write as someone who on the whole dislikes them) is that it not only gives examples of the myriad responses that memory evokes but it offers theories that try to account for it
—— The TimesA fascinating and topical encyclopaedia on a little understood subject... a forensic strike at the quivering fragility of what and how we remember
—— Big IssueEngaging...constantly surprising
—— Scotland on SundayAn intriguing anthology
—— IndependentOne to dip into again and again
—— ExpressOpen-minded and inclusive
—— Time OutWonderful...this anthology has a pleasingly flow-like feel...fascinating...it takes a wide view of the subject
—— Giles Foden , GuardianOne wishes this book could get into the hands of all the suffering children who need it
—— Washington PostThis story of unfathomable child abuse is told with remarkable wit, compassion, and courage
—— Augusten Burroughs, author of Running with ScissorsHighly articulate … Her memories are real, not recovered
—— The Times