Editorial

The cover of this issue relates to an article by Neil Harrison and colleagues who examine 53 cases of psychogenic amnesia, finding that they fall into four groups: fugue state; fugue-to-focal retrograde amnesia; psychogenic focal retrograde amnesia following a minor neurological episode; and patients with gaps in their memories. Agatha Christie, the crime thriller writer, was on the front pages of newspapers throughout the English-speaking world in late 1926 when she disappeared from Styles, her home in Berkshire, and turned up in Harrogate 11 days later, having checked into the Swan Hydropathic Hotel as Mrs T. Neele. She was unable to account for her whereabouts during her absence, and apparently unaware that she had a daughter when met by her husband, Colonel Archibald Christie. She made a full recovery and was never able or willing to describe what happened. A medical report signed by a neurologist, Donald Core, and a general practitioner, Henry Wilson, stated that they 'formed the opinion that she is suffering from an unquestionably genuine loss of memory, and that for her future welfare she should be spared all anxiety and excitement'. It is perhaps not entirely coincidental that within 2 years she was divorced and Colonel Christie had married a Miss Nancy Neele.

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