“Neuroscientists have confirmed tha strong emotions, which release adrenaline, which activates the brain, make for emotionally charged memories, often called flashbulb memories. One such memory for me is of the night in December 1994 when I found myself lost in the Sahara Desert in Niger and had to spend fourteen hours alone until I was found by my partys Tuareg guides.”

—Jonathan Cott, from On the Sea of Memory: A Journey from Forgetting to Remembering, 2005.