Book excerpt: For students old and new, Brain and Mind Made Simple makes sense of the brain, mind and consciousness. The book is packed with examples, patient histories and explanations, exploring for instance the strange case of Phineas Gage who survived brain injury but with a new personality. An expert, scientific and highly accessible guide. Most people know David Nutt as the UK’s sacked Drug Czar – ‘kicked out’ for speaking truth to power i.e. that UK policy on drugs and alcohol was not fit for purpose, driven by politics not science. But in a life outside politics Nutt is an academic, psychiatrist and researcher who studies the brain to help understand how it goes awry in mental and neurological illnesses. A few years ago, before Covid, he started giving public lectures explaining how the brain works and how alterations of the mind can occur as a result of changes in brain function. They were extremely popular — usually over 150 people at each — with lots of questions. So, he decided to write up the lectures in this book for the general public, and anyone else with an interest in the field, especially university students of psychology, medicine and neuroscience. As well as educating these groups, all royalties from Brain and Mind Made Simple will help support the charity Drug Science that David Nutt set-up after his sacking to continue to promote the cause of bringing scientific evidence to improve drug policy.