Memory is as essential to everyday life as seeing and hearing, smelling and touching. In Memory David Samuel draws on a lifetime of scientific research to produce an informative, refreshing and wide-ranging view of the subject: what is known about memory; how it was - and is - studied, including the most sophisticated and expensive methods for studying brain function and memory; long- and short-term memory; what to remember? and is there a limit to what one can remember?; Alzheimer's disease; experiments on octopuses, rats; monkeys and students; normal loss of memory, and the effect of alcohol, drugs and anxiety; deliberate and unintentional fraud in `tricks of memory'; how to improve memory - why do diplomats, actors and doormen have such good memories?