If you consider yourself the biggest Harry Potter fan in the world, you might want to rethink that title. A 26-year-old Australian woman has a rare memory condition and can recite Harry Potter, word for word.
Rebecca "Becky" Sharrock has been diagnosed with both Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM) and autism. HSAM affects only 80 people worldwide, and Sharrock is the first Australian to be diagnosed with it. She is also the only person in the world to have both diagnoses. Sharrock runs the Superior Autobiographical Memory Australia Facebook page, @StreamsOfMemories.
Sharrock, a Harry Potter superfan, can recite every word of J.K. Rowling's books. When given a random line, she can "name the book, chapter number, chapter name and c[an] recite every word" from that point on. Her mother, Janet Barnes, says that recalling the Harry Potter books helped Sharrock to recover from nightmares as a small child.
Nightmares aside, Sharrock's Harry Potter memories seem to be happy ones. Deccan Chronicle reports that she relives her emotions just as vividly as the memories to which they are attached. It's unclear whether Sharrock has read Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at this time, but I hope she's in a good place to read or see the play, because it would be a shame to have it ruined for her.
For more information on Becky Sharrock, follow her on Twitter.
Image: Warner Bros.
