Nonfiction Book Review: Memory Craft: Improve Your Memory with the Most Powerful Methods in History by Lynne Kelly

By David Ryan | Central Library

Of all the different mnemonics or memory tricks I’ve come across over the years, I’ve always found the memory palace to be the most fascinating. The palace is a place—real or imagined—that allows you to logically store your facts and figures in an orderly fashion. You can store nearly any fact or figure in your memory palace from countries of the world in order of population to French verbs. The memory palace is incredibly versatile. I first came across the concept of memory palaces in, of all places, a Hannibal Lecter novel. The murderous Dr. Lecter uses memory palaces as a type of mental library for souvenirs both gruesome and beautiful.

Several years later I discovered what is considered the most authoritative of memory books, and learned that a memory palace is more traditionally used to hold facts and figures. Published in 1966, The Art of Memory by Frances Yates was so influential that in 1999 it landed on the New York Times top 100 nonfiction list. I found her book fascinating, but highly academic; honestly, I didn’t find easy directions to the construction of a memory palace.        

Since then I’ve found many memory books that deal with memory palaces and other memory techniques, but none as straightforward, entertaining, and inclusive as Memory Craft by Lynne Kelly. Kelly is a science writer and honorary research associate at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. She invites the reader to join her in a lifelong exploration of memory techniques. In the process she reveals the history of a multitude of different memory methods and cultures. 

She begins with visual alphabets, then moves on to medieval bestiaries as peg systems before introducing memory palaces. She even includes color photographs of her own visual alphabets for examples. This personal touch is one reason I find her book so appealing. She journals her own experiments with memory tools and gives you honest, and occasionally humorous, appraisals. At the end of her exploration of memory methods, she enters the prestigious Australian memory championship with mixed results. 

A critical aspect of Kelly’s work that must not be overlooked is the inclusion of memory methods from non-Western cultures. Throughout the book she provides examples from Africa, Australia, Inca, and Native American cultures of complex and beautiful memory devices. In one chapter she builds memory boards, or lukasa, using the methods of the African Luba tribe. Afterward, she comments, “I was not prepared for the emotional impact when holding my memory boards.”

This is an excellent introduction to memory methods from different ages and from a multitude of cultures. Lynne Kelly provides detailed instructions on how to use the various methods that are fun yet practical. I hope you enjoy constructing your own memory palace.