An engraved view of a grand hall of columns and arches under a calm sky, in the same style as the plates in the course.
A course · 30 lessons · B2 English

The Art of Memory

Thirty lessons on the oldest memory technique in the world. Each one opens with a true story, teaches a method you can learn in an evening, and ends with practice that proves it works. Written in clear English for learners and for anyone who wants a better memory.

Start with lesson 1 →
An engraved view into an empty grand house at dawn, with small gold markers along the doorway, a window, a hearth and a table.
The threshold
An engraving of a grand room full of strange, vivid pictures: a cat attacking a soldier, a burning lute, a monkey on a cabinet, a loaf of bread with a sleeping face.
Pictures that stick
An engraving of a banquet hall just after the roof has fallen in, with small gold stars marking where each guest sat.
The banquet hall
An engraving of three huge turning wheels covered in small pictures, between statues and globes.
The wheel of images
An engraving of seven women in a columned hall, each holding a symbol such as a book, scales, compasses, a counting frame, a lute and a globe.
Ideas with faces

Two and a half thousand years ago, a poet walked out of a banquet hall a moment before the roof fell in. The guests inside could not be recognised. The poet could name every one of them, because he remembered where each person had been sitting. That story is the seed of everything in this course: we remember places far better than lists, so we put what we want to keep in a place.

The first five lessons teach the basics: how memory works, how to make a picture stick, and how to use your body, a building and a story as places for what you want to keep. Then come numbers, people, cards, speeches, words, formulas and ideas, and finally the habits that keep it all alive. Take one lesson at a time. Each takes about an hour. Your ticks and notes are saved on this device only.

I · FoundationsII · NumbersIII · Memory in Daily LifeIV · Language and StudyV · Advanced TechniquesVI · Mastery

How every lesson works

1 · The Story

A short true story, or a scene, that shows the idea at work, with a question after each part.

2 · The Method

The technique in clear steps, with a worked example and a diagram.

3 · Try It

You build the pictures yourself. Models appear only after you have tried.

4 · Drill

Flash cards, a quick quiz and a timed memory challenge.

5 · Look Back

Questions from earlier lessons, what you can now do, and one thought to keep.

Part I

Foundations

How memory works, and the five basic tools: pictures, the body, a building and a story.

Memory hook: a 1920s reporter with no notebook, a street of vivid objects behind him, and a funnel, strongbox and lantern for encoding, storage and retrieval.1How Memory WorksA man who never took notes, and the three stages of memory.Memory hook: a man in a toga walks through a dull grey Roman forum with a brightly lit goat standing on his head.2Pictures That StickWhy the strange is remembered, and twelve ways to make a picture stick.Memory hook: a monk whose body holds ten objects in order, from a nest on his head to mice on his toes.3The Body as a Memory BoardTen places on your body that hold ten things in order.Memory hook: a Greek poet walks a fixed route of gold footprints past alcoves, each holding one glowing object.4The Memory PalaceThe banquet, the falling roof and the method of places.Memory hook: a bard plays as a chain of linked objects flows from his instrument: a boot, a fish, a key, a bell, a balloon.5Links and StoriesChain any list into a story you can retell.
Part II

Numbers

Numbers are hard because they are not pictures. Five ways to turn them into pictures, from simple to professional.

Memory hook: a swan, a sailboat and a snowman line the lakeshore, shaped like the digits they stand for.6Numbers Become PicturesShapes and rhymes that give every digit a picture.Memory hook: brass numerals fly from a lost door code and turn into creatures: a snake, a mummy, a rooster, a whale.7The Major SystemTen sounds that turn any number into words.Memory hook: a white-haired professor lifts a heavy barbell on a TV stage, one person doing another person's action.8People With NumbersAn eight-times champion's way of turning digits into people.Memory hook: on a film set, a knight kisses a goat while holding a trumpet: person, action and object in one scene.9Person, Action, ObjectPerson, action, object: six digits in one scene.Memory hook: a man reciting pi before a golden circle, with five different keys laid out in front of him to choose from.10Choosing Your SystemFive number systems side by side, and how to choose.
Part III

Memory in Daily Life

People, cards, talks and the maps that organise a whole subject.

Memory hook: an ambassador greets senators, each with one exaggerated feature carrying a picture: bread on a nose, horns, a bell, a cherry.11Names and FacesA five-step method for names and faces.Memory hook: playing cards spread on a family table, each one sprouting its own miniature city.12A Pack of CardsFifty-two cards, fifty-two pictures.Memory hook: a Roman orator speaks with empty hands while, above him, a house of five rooms holds one picture each: a ship, scales, a torch, a crown, a key.13Speaking Without NotesGive a talk with a short walk instead of a script.Memory hook: a Victorian naturalist at his desk as a tree grows out of his notebook, its branches ending in finches, shells, beetles and fossils.14Drawing Your ThinkingSee a whole subject on one page, then walk through it.Memory hook: a stallholder crosses a dawn market square, with a different memory tool glowing above each stall: a chain, a palace, a swan, a face, a tree, a card.15Market DayOne busy day, every tool so far, and five habits.
Part IV

Language and Study

Words, grammar, lists and formulas: memory for study.

Memory hook: a duck sits in a copper cooking pot wearing the lid as a hat (pato sounds like pot), with a tree's spreading roots on the wall behind.16Words in a New LanguageThe keyword method and ten Latin roots.Memory hook: one family in a bell tower room: grandfather rings, mother sings, son drinks, daughter dives into a barrel, joined by rings of sound.17Verbs That MisbehaveIrregular verbs in families, with a story each.Memory hook: a 1940s pilot talks on the radio as the aerial carries a washing line of pegged pictures: a wreath, a dancing fox, a golf club, a hotel, a tango, a glass, a delta, a weight.18Twenty-Six PegsTwenty-six code words as twenty-six pegs.Memory hook: a young patent clerk watches a tiny stage where a giant lifts a boulder while a comet circles twice: a formula acted out by characters.19Formulas as CharactersFormulas as characters in a short scene.Memory hook: in a night library, a student sleeps on a heap of fading notes, while her other self recalls with eyes closed inside a ring of five glowing stones.20The Night Before the ExamWhy re-reading fails, and a study cycle that lasts.
Part V

Advanced Techniques

Speed, dates, three-digit pictures, networks of palaces and abstract ideas.

Memory hook: a competitor in ear defenders flicks through cards beside a giant stopwatch and an hourglass whose neck jams in a glowing red bottleneck.21Against the ClockFind the slowest step and train in short rounds.Memory hook: a schoolmaster leads pupils through a line of rooms, each furnished in a later century, with a crowned king landing by longship in the Norman room.22A Palace of CenturiesA timeline with a place for every century.Memory hook: three brass gears fuse in a burst of light into one giant ribboned bone above a desk covered in endless rows of dots.23Three Digits, One PictureThree digits in one syllable and one picture.Memory hook: a priest in scholar's robes looks over a walled town where very different palaces link by glowing bridges to one central bell courtyard.24A Town of PalacesLink many palaces into a network.Memory hook: seven women stand between the columns of a hall, each holding a symbol: a book, scales, compasses, an abacus, a lute, a globe, a serpent scroll.25Ideas You Cannot SeeGive abstract ideas a symbol, a person or a scene.
Part VI

Mastery

Speeches, books, the world championships, a practice plan, and the final walk.

Memory hook: a wartime statesman rehearses a speech beside a cut-away palace of nested rooms, a gold thread running from room to room in order.26The Long SpeechNested palaces for a talk of twenty minutes.Memory hook: before dawn a monk kneels at a book whose pages fold up into a little cloister, each arch holding one illuminated picture.27Keeping a BookSurvey, map and place a book or an article.Memory hook: competitors sit at ten different event stations in a circle around a gilded trophy in a grand London hall.28A Day at the ChampionshipsThe ten events of memory championships.Memory hook: a runner sets off at dawn from a small ring of seven stones up a long road of many, beside a tall notched candle.29From Seven Digits to Seventy-NineA twenty-minute daily routine and a review calendar.Memory hook: a traveller walks the whole length of the banquet hall, now with its roof whole, past objects from the course towards a sunrise road.30The Final WalkWalk the whole course and plan the next thirty days.

Beyond the course

Once you have your palaces, fill them. Ten further lessons use the Dewey Decimal classes as a map of human knowledge: