Face Saviour

From the first shot of a machine gun on the Western Front, it was clear that military technology had far surpassed the capabilities of medical science. Many soldiers of the First World War who survived the industrial-scale slaughter left the army with disfigurements and almost unimaginable trauma. While the loss of a limb makes a veteran a hero, a man without a face becomes a monster. The one who restores his face saves his identity and his soul.

The brutality of war is a fertile ground for medical progress. The story of Harold Gillies, the father of modern plastic surgery, is a testament to this. Gillies' ward at The Queen's Hospital in London became a laboratory for medical inventions and innovations, and also a place where the dramatic fates of patients, who were brought back to life thanks to the doctor's dedication and professional skill, intersected.

Just as in her previous book, The Butchering Art, science historian Lindsey Fitzharris writes evocatively and in a language close to fiction.

Lindsey Fitzharris (1982) studied the history of science and medicine at the University of Oxford and is particularly dedicated to the popularisation of science. Readers of Paseka know her as the author of a book about Victorian medicine and the pioneer of antisepsis and sterilisation, Joseph Lister (The Butchering Art, Paseka 2019), and viewers of Prime Video and Apple TV+ have watched her in the documentary series about mysterious deaths, Curious Life and Death of… Her blog, The Chirurgeon's Apprentice, is followed by over two million readers. She contributes to The Guardian, Huffington Post, The Lancet, and New Scientist.