A MEMORY WONDER

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 439, 21 May 1937, Page 5

A MEMORY WONDER

ASTONISHING FEATS Words By 100,000 London, May 8. Mr James H. Shannon, of Bradford, England, can learn a lecture by heart and deliver it without referring to a single note. His services are in greet demand by societies in Yorkshire and elsewhere, and. he has just completed a remarkable winter season of lecturing, having delivered a total of 320,000 words—all from memory. His talks’ are tightly packed with facts and figures, and contain more figures than there are in the Budget speech of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He reels off avalanches of statistics with ease, and he’s never wrong. Mr Shannon discovered’ his memor. ising abilities when he started delving into history as a hobby over a quarter of a century ago. Now he is a lecturer on many different subjects of a comprehensive nature, Covering poli(ti,cs, explanation, hist tory, cricket and the Turf. He memorised 40,000 figures- for “Cricket and Its Records,’’ and on one occasion, after spending seven weeks in assembling a 10,000-word lecture on Napoleon the Great, he memorised 'the whole lecture in two and a quarter hours and gave it the same evening. ’I have never studied any memory system, Mr Shannon said, “It has been a gift with me, and one which has enabled me to concentrate rapid, ly on any subject.’’ Mr Shannon, who is 69 years of age, was a post office telegraphist for 46 years.