Spare Parts

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Brought to you by Penguin.

How did an architect help pioneer blood transfusion in the 1660s?
Why did eighteenth-century dentists buy the live teeth of poor children?
And what role did a sausage skin and an enamel bath play in making kidney transplants a reality?

We think of transplant surgery as one of the medical wonders of the modern world. But transplant surgery is as ancient as the pyramids, with a history more surprising than we might expect. Paul Craddock takes us on a journey - from sixteenth-century skin grafting to contemporary stem cell transplants - uncovering stories of operations performed by unexpected people in unexpected places. Bringing together philosophy, science and cultural history, Spare Parts explores how transplant surgery constantly tested the boundaries between human, animal and machine, and continues to do so today.

Witty, entertaining and at times delightfully macabre, Spare Parts shows us that the history - and future - of transplant surgery is tied up with questions about not only who we are, but also what we are, and what we might become. . .

© Paul Craddock 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Critics Review

A fascinating book

Daily Mail

Compelling

The Sunday Times

The charm of Spare Parts comes from situating these landmarks in a wider history of ideas

Spectator

A thrilling and often terrifying ride through transplantation and the theories and techniques that made it possible . . . tantalizing

The New York Times

Anyone interested in the history of surgery will find much to amaze and startle in Paul Craddock’s Spare Parts: A Surprising History of Transplants

Independent

Excellent . . . Much has been written about this subject, but with Spare Parts Paul Craddock has achieved something unique: a serious, entertaining and thoroughly researched work that usefully sets the history of transplantation in the context of the evolution of ideas about the human body

TLS

Craddock combines meticulous scholarship with wry wit in lucid prose which is all the more powerful for being understated . . . Spare Parts is a triumph

Roger Kneebone, author of 'Expert'

I read Spare Parts with my mouth open, my eyes popping and my brain fizzing. It’s a fascinating exploration of just how far humans will go to stay on the right side of death. I can’t think of any other book whose pages will make you laugh, gasp, grimace and wince. Spare Parts is a triumph of medical story-telling

Michael Brooks, author of 'The Quantum Astrologer's Handbook' and 'Science(ish)'

This is a fascinating and sure-footed exploration of the medical, historical and mythological landscape in which humans use parts from each other to make themselves whole. With compassion and insight, Paul Craddock elucidates vital questions about what it means to be human and to realise our dreams of survival

Dr Emily Mayhew, author of 'Wounded' and 'The Four Horsemen'

This is a captivating and absorbing read that surprises on every page whether it be from prosthetic noses of the 16th Century to modern day bio-printing and stem cell technology

Professor Dame Sue Black, author of 'All That Remains'

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