Castlemaine’s Dr Lynne Kelly is one busy woman as she prepares for the official launch of her new book – Memory Craft.
Published by Allen & Unwin, Memory Craft follows on from Dr Kelly’s 2016 best-selling The Memory Code, which changed the way researchers across the globe regarded memory techniques of indigenous cultures.
“The big reaction to The Memory Code was ‘how do we actually do this?’ so this is a practical how-to, because that’s what everybody was asking me,” said Dr Kelly, who is a senior memory champion, prolific science writer and Honorary Research Associate at Melbourne’s La Trobe University.
Ahead of the official Castlemaine launch of Memory Craft on June 13, Dr Kelly has been busy in recent days responding to requests for TV and radio dates in Melbourne and Sydney.
“The brain is a muscle and it’s a muscle where the science has shown we don’t stop laying down neural pathways and new synapses and so on,” Dr Kelly told the Midland Express.
“But you’ve got to actually put the effort in, like keeping any muscle active.”
Memory Craft aims to share the most effective practical memory techniques humans have ever devised, from ancient times and the Middle Ages to methods used by today’s memory athletes.
In writing the book, Dr Kelly tested all of the methods in experiments, which she said demonstrated the extraordinary capacity of the human brain at any age.
“We have stopped using these methods. It’s only western society in the last few hundred years who has. All indigenous cultures, medieval, Renaissance, Asian cultures all use these methods.
“A good memory method starts by laying down a structure, which is open. If you lay it down with the landscape, as the indigenous cultures do, you can then layer more and more information. That’s what these methods are – put down a structure and then add more and more and more.”
All are welcome to attend this month’s launch of Memory Craft by expert in memory and indigenous knowledge Dr Duane Hamacher.
It will take place in the Phee Broadway Theatre on Thursday June 13 at 5.30pm and will include discussion by Dr Kelly, book sales and signings.
While attendance at the upcoming launch is free, bookings are required and can be made via the Castlemaine Library or library website.
Castlemaine library manager Jess Saunders advised those hoping to attend to book quickly.
“When we had Lynne here last time it booked out,” Ms Saunders said.
“The Phee Broadway has capacity for 230 and we’re almost halfway booked now.”
