A possible classic: Review of 'A Lifetime of intelligence. Follow-up Studies of the Scottish Mental Surveys of 1932 and 1947', Ian J. Deary, Lawrence J. Walley & John M. Starr: American Psychological Association; 2009; Hb £62.95

This publication is designed to bring together two world-famous studies where whole populations of children were tested on their cognitive ability. The two separate groups of children were tested at 11 years old in 1932 and in 1947 and these became known as the Scottish Mental Surveys. The authors rediscovered this data that had lain almost untouched in Edinburgh for sometime and realised that it could potentially offer insight into questions about the predictability of cognitive testing at age 11 such as cognitive ageing and the association of cognitive ability and death [see www.bps.org.uk/deary].