All About - History - Hitler Versus Stain

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ODYSNATCHERS
IGGING UP THE UNTOLD STORIES OF
RITAIN’S RESURRECTION MEN
Grab your shovel and unearth some grisly tales
uthor Suzie Lennox Publisher Pen and Sword Price £12.99 Released Out now
icture the scene: an Edinburgh churchyard
at midnight, the only sounds that of an
owl’s hoot and the steady scrape of a spade
digging deep into a fresh grave as the
resurrectionists go about their gruesome
siness. Suzie Lennox’s new book takes readers
ck in time to the 18th and 19th centuries to dig
some stories of men that history has long since
rgotten. While names such as Burke and Hare
ve become notorious, Lennox introduces us to
enty of lesser-known individuals that kept the
atomy schools provided with raw materials for
most a century.
Thanks to these shadowy characters, medical
udents were never short of a cadaver to dissect
d schools paid handsomely for the wares that
e likes of Henry Gillies provided. With no
estions asked, the bodysnatchers soon became
ures of fear, moving by night and showing
little respect to the British dead. Although the
book isn’t short on gruesome stories and stomach
churning moments, its strength undoubtedly lies
in the way Lennox considers the wider impactions
of the bodysnatcher’s trade and how their immoral
work allowed for continuing medical research and
study. She skilfully weaves a tapestry of criminal
and surgical connections, teasing out the names
that history has forgotten and placing them in a
richly written social narrative.
Lennox handles this very specialist subject
with an authoritative air and hugely entertaining,
evocative style. It is to her credit that she resists
the temptation to stray into sensationalism, even
when the material virtually invites it. She brings
the Georgian underworld vividly back to life and
in doing so, rightly resurrects some colourful
characters that might otherwise never have seen
the light of day again.
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RECOMMENDS…
Postcards From
The Front
Author: Kate J Cole Price: £14.99
Publisher: Amberley Publishing
For soldiers
serving in
World War
I on the
Western Front,
postcards
provided quick
communication
with home,
often scribbled
on breaks from
marching;
postcards were the counterpoint to
the considered letter. Cole shows the
pictures chosen by soldiers serving, as
well as reproducing the messages, thus
serving to confirm the notion that the
British are obsessed with the weather:
seemingly every postcard includes
a comment on the climate, while
generally eschewing any mention of the
actual war, highlighting the stoicism of
the men and women of the time.
DADLAND
A JOURNEY INTO
UNCHARTED TERRITORY
Author Keggie Carew embarks on a journey
to piece together her father’s history
Author Keggie Carew Publisher Chatto & Windus
Price £18.99 Released Out now
For many, our first taste of
history comes from our
parents and grandparents.
Their stories open up a
world of wartime heroes,
fashion faux pas and a time
before the internet. But what
happens when that family
member can no longer tell you
those stories, because they don’t
remember anymore? That is
the sad reality in Dadland, in
which author Carew attempts
to unravel and reassemble the
patchwork of memories that
belong to her elderly father, a
shadow of the man formerly
known as ‘Lawrence of Burma’.
In his youth, he was a spy
in an elite SOE unit called
the Jedburghs, a “left-handed
Maverick” whose military
achievements and lady-killer
ways could inspire a great
stylish blockbuster. Instead,
however, Carew’s account of
her father’s past life takes on a
different tone, the mystery and
secrecy of her father’s espionage
now ironically mirrored by his
inability to remember most of
his adventures due to dementia.
The private recollections of a
real flesh and blood person are
always far more interesting than
dusty history books, and often
much more valuable in terms of
how we come to understand our
previous generations. Carew’s
conflicting feelings towards her
ailing father and the man he
once was are sure to capture the
imagination of anyone hoping to
relive an old spy’s adventures.