ADVENTURES IN HUMAN BEING

'A quietly radical, three-dimensional view of issues such as reproduction, birth, death and disability that has the power, at times, to make you stop mid-sentence and carefully reassess some of your most basic assumptions.' - Scotsman. In a deft mix of the clinical and the lyrical, Francis moves skilfully between the scientific and aesthetic, anatomical fact and emotional consequence in his beautifully written and elegant series of essays. Drawing on his experiences as a doctor, he blends stories from the clinic with reflections on the way the body has been imagined and understood over millennia, offering new perspectives on everything from the ribbed surface of the brain to the unique engineering of the foot. His chapters are headed Brain, Head, Chest, Upper Limb, Abdomen and Pelvis, Lower Limb and cover Neurosurgery of the Soul, Seizures, Sanctity and Psychiatry, The Eye: A Renaissance of Vision, Face: Beautiful Palsy, Inner Ear: Voodoo and Vertigo, Heart: On Seagull Murmurs, Ebb and Flow, Shoulder: Arms and Armour, Wrist and Hand: Punched, Cut and Crucified, Kidney: The Ultimate Gift and Large Bowel and Rectum: A Magnificent Work of Art among them. From the threshold of life and death of the womb, to tips of our feet and toes, this is an extraordinary journey through the most intimate landscape of all - our own bodies. Index, 252pp, illustrated paperback.