John aged sixty suffered a stroke & recovered fully except in one respect although he can see perfectly he can no longer recognise faces even his own reflection in a mirror Whenever Francesca touches a particular texture she experiences a vivid emotion denim extreme sadness; wax embarrassment; orange peel shock Jimmie whose left arm was recently amputated can still feel it
- & it's itchy Our brains are the most enchanting & complex things in the known universe
- but what happens when they go wrong? Dr V S Ramachandran 'the Sherlock Holmes of brain science' & one of the world's leading neuroscientists has spent a lifetime working with patients who suffer from rare & baffling brain conditions In The Tell-Tale Brain he tells their stories & explores what they reveal about the greatest mystery of them all how our minds work & what makes each of us so uniquely human