The Facemaker

Thanks to NetGalley for providing the ebook in exchange for a review.

This book was so good! I don't know when I first heard of Harold Gillies, sometime after I watched Boardwalk Empire and liked Jack Huston's character - the character has a mask to cover his facial damage and I wanted to know more, which led me to the work that Harold Gillies did.

Gillies pioneered modern plastic surgery and realized the importance of working with other sorts of people. His teams included surgeons, dentists, artists, and whoever else had a needed skill. This book focuses on the men and women who worked with Gillies - the medical techniques they created or perfected, the artistic records of procedures, the prosthetics that were created - and the patients who needed his help.

This was fascinating and read easily. There were times it felt a little repetitive as most chapters followed the same format, but the information was all really interesting and presented well.

I've been meaning to read Lindsey Fitzharris's other book, The Butchering Art, so when this came up on NetGalley I was interested. I'm so glad I read this and will need to bump her other book up my tbr list.

(I do wish the ebook included the pictures that Fitzharris mentions, as I think seeing the work and people and places mentioned would be helpful.)

The mechanisation of battle during World War 1, lead to both more and worse injuries than had been seen before.
Facial injuries damaged both the body and the psyche, with men ostracised for being too disturbing to look at.

The possibility of successful reconstructive surgery attracted a disparate group of professionals, including ENT surgeons, general surgeons and dentists.

This book is a fascinating account of both the patients and the healthcare professionals.

The focus is on Harold Gillies and his pioneering work in establishing the beginnings of modern plastic surgery.
There are many other honourable mentions of international contributors to the work. Many of whom were self funded.

With each patient comes a vignette of the grim circumstances surrounding their injuries, together with pretty gory clinical details.

A very interesting read, which makes one very grateful for modern anaesthesia, asepsis and analgesia.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review. All views expressed are my own.