PAUL BROKS TAKES his book's title from a well-known poem by Christina Rossetti, a staple of memorial services:

Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land.. .

There 'the silent land' is death; here the author uses the phrase to refer to the human brain. As a neuropsychologist, he is concerned with the workings of the brain and how physical irregularities in it can affect our personalities and emotional behaviour. Yet the association with the Rossetti poem remains