Review: Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green

Everything is Tuberculosis - The History and Persistence of our Deadliest Infection by John Green is an in depth examination of tuberculosis (TB), it's causes, history, treatments and cures and why it is that so many people continue to die of the disease each and every year.

TB is an infection caused by bacteria and it's airborne, meaning anyone can catch it. According to the author, between 1/4 and 1/3 of all living humans have been infected with it but only a small percentage of those (up to 10%) will end up becoming sick with active TB. Malnutrition and a weakened immune system can trigger a dormant case of TB to become active, making it largely a disease of poverty.

The author of The Fault in Our Stars began to take a serious interest in the topic when he met a young boy with TB in Sierra Leone. Referring to Henry's case throughout the book enables him to put a face on the disease and Green sets the scene early on when he informs the reader just how many people have died from TB in the last 200 years.

"Just in the last two centuries, tuberculosis caused over a billion human deaths. One estimate, from Frank Ryan's Tuberculosis the Greatest Story Never Told, maintains that TB has killed around 1 in 7 people who've ever lived." Introduction

I remember learning this fact at some point in the last few years and it's precisely the reason I decided to read this book. Also known as consumption, and sometimes referred to as the white plague, tuberculosis is the oldest contagious disease and I wanted to know more about it.

The audiobook is narrated by the author himself and I was most interested in the history of TB and in particular the romanticisation of consumption in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. At that time, it was believed TB was only acquired by people with great sensitivity and intelligence. If that wasn't bad enough, women with consumption were thought to become more beautiful, ethereal and wondrously pure. Ugh!

TB is a wasting disease and death was commonly a long and drawn out process during which sufferers became weakened and bed-bound. It's hard to believe now - until you recall the popularity of waif models and the heroin chic style from the 1990s - but this began to affect beauty standards of the time. Patients with active TB became thin and pale with wide sunken eyes and a rosy tint on their cheeks from fever and this beauty ideal became desirable and highly valued. (You can see this reflected in the art and literature of the time).

Green moves on to the science of TB and describes the various breakthroughs in medicine that led to TB eventually becoming treatable and then curable. In 2023, a million people died of TB and while Green acknowledges we can't eliminate TB completely, we can make sure nobody dies from it. So why haven't we?

The author explains that the drugs to treat TB aren't being produced and made available in the countries that need them most. Essentially, the drugs are where the disease is not and the disease is where the drugs are not.

A whole host of factors, including big pharma companies keep drug prices high; only a finite amount of aid sent to foreign countries is allocated to medicine and lack of access to basic medical facilities in poorer countries means that TB goes on to kill a million people unnecessarily each year. Learning TB is basically an expression of injustice and inequity was grim and depressing.

At the end of all this, there was no call to action, no website to donate to or petition to sign which was a lost opportunity in my opinion. Green is clearly calling for global healthcare reform, but provides little for the average reader to do with their frustration at the current situation.

For novels with consumptive characters, I can recommend:
- The Haunting of Mr and Mrs Stevenson by Belinda Lyons-Lee ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Bone China by Laura Purcell ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Laetitia Rodd and the Case of the Wandering Scholar by Kate Saunders ⭐️⭐️⭐️

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: History Stinks!: Wee, Snot and Slime Through Time by Suzie Edge

Throughout June and July I was finally tackling The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and needed a light audiobook to listen to in my downtime. History Stinks! Wee, Snot and Slime Through Time by Suzie Edge is the second in the History Stinks! series - the first being History Stinks! Poo Through the Ages - and is recommended for readers aged 7 years and over.

Published in April 2025, doctor and historian Suzie Edge turns back time to teach young readers about the history of urine, snot, pus, earwax, vomit, blood, sweat, tears and saliva. Tapping into the fact that kids of a certain age find bodily excretions gross and funny, the author combines her medical knowledge with her love of history to educate us further on this gooey subject matter.

We learn how urine was used by doctors to diagnose patients. 2,500 years ago the physician Hippocrates tasted a patient's urine in order to diagnose their condition. Now considered the father of medicine, Hippocrates was able to utilise this technique to spot conditions like diabetes if the urine was too sweet. He also tasted a patient's earwax; if it was bitter the patient was well, but if it was sweet, the patient was sick.

The chapter on earwax was enlightening as the author tells us medieval monks used earwax to help stick gold leaf to their illuminated manuscripts and to alter the consistency of their ink. Wow!

"Amazingly, earwax can tell us a lot about a person. Archaeologists who find bodies when they are digging in the ground sometimes find them with earwax still there. You can tell what someone liked to eat, the environment that they lived in and what pollutants they were exposed to." Chapter 5, Ewww! Earwax!

Presented in an easily digestible and accessible writing style, the content features regular jokes and info that will no doubt keep kids engaged.

History Stinks! Wee, Snot and Slime Through Time is perfect to listen to in the car with kids who want to know more about gross human bodily excretions and how our knowledge about them has changed over time.

Other books by Suzie Edge include:
Vital Organs - A History of the World's Most Famous Body Parts
Mortal Monarchs - 1,000 Years of Royal Deaths

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: Feel-Good Productivity by Ali Abdaal

According to the blurb, Dr Ali Abdaal is the world's most-followed productivity expert and in Feel-Good Productivity - How to Do More of What Matters to You he shares his insights based on his study on the subject of productivity.

During medical school, the author became interested in the science of productivity in an effort to get more out of his day. While working as a Doctor for the NHS in the UK he reached a point of burn out and realised he needed to make some changes to his life.

This self help book is broken down into the following three components: Part 1 Energise, Part 2 Unblock and Part 3 Sustain. I don't think it's a spoiler to say that Dr Abdaal's secret to positivity is joy. The essence of his advice is to find a way to experience positive emotions in your work which will enable you to generate more energy to give to work and the other areas of your life.

This isn't a book about time management, prioritising or to-do lists and there wasn't much new-to-me-content on offer, but more about that in a minute.

Most of us have heard the term SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Relevant, Time-related), but in the chapter entitled Seek Clarity, I did learn about NICE goals for the first time.

N - near-term goals (daily or weekly objectives) ensure we're not overwhelmed by the bigger picture and help us to concentrate on the immediate steps we need to take.

I - input-based goals emphasise the process not the outcome. For example, go for a 10 minute walk every day rather than lose 5kg this year.

C - controllable goals are those within our control, naturally. Keep it realistic.

E - energising goals consider a way to integrate play, power and people into each goal.

The side by side comparison between SMART goals (lose 5 kgs in the next three months) and NICE goals (exercise for 30 minutes every day and focus on activities that are enjoyable and manageable) was interesting and probably my main takeaway from the book.

Abdaal narrates the audiobook in a friendly and appealing tone and following along with a print copy from the library, I was struck by just how much his approach seemed to be an amalgamation of my own reading on the topic. Make a dull task fun by listening to music, attach goals to existing behaviours and habit stack in order to establish new positive habits, push through procrastination by deciding to spend 5 minutes on the task.

Even the author's anecdote about the writing habits of Brandon Sanderson has been mentioned in other books I've read. This is the first time I've used ChatGPT to write a review, but I was sure I'd read about Sanderson's progress tracking and the fact he doesn't stop writing until he's reached 2,000 words every day in other self help books. A quick search with the help of AI confirmed my suspicions and this example has appeared in Atomic Habits by James Clear and The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. How I feel about the use of AI to fact check a book review is probably a topic to consider another day, but what do you think, is it cheating?

In summary, Feel-Good Productivity - How to Do More of What Matters to You by Dr Ali Abdaal is a good starting point for readers new to the topic of productivity or those disenchanted with their career or field of study. If you've read any - or a combination - of the titles below, you won't find anything vastly new here.

Still considering? Read a FREE extract of the book.

For more on the topic:
100 Ways to Motivate Yourself by Steve Chandler
Atomic Habits by James Clear
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
Fish! A Proven Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results by Stephen C. Lundin
What Makes Us Tick by Hugh Mackay
The Inner Self by Hugh Mackay
Just One Thing by Dr Michael Mosley
Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: Unnatural Causes by Dr Richard Shepherd

Dr Richard Shepherd is a Forensic Pathologist in the UK and has performed over 23,000 post mortems. In his memoir, Unnatural Causes - The Life and Many Deaths of Britain's Top Forensic Pathologist he shares highlights from his early career until the time of publication in 2018.

Listening to the author narrate this memoir, his dedication and enthusiasm for the work definitely shines through. His early struggles to interact with the grieving loved ones of the deceased he looks after is also laid bare.

Shepherd worked on some well known cases but the one I was most surprised to read about was the Marchioness disaster.

In 1989, a party boat named the Marchioness was carrying 130 people along the Thames River in London when it collided with another vessel and a total of 51 people died. Identification of the remains at the time came down to fingerprints and dental records, however the bloating of some of the bodies that had taken longer to retrieve led officials to make one of the most horrific decisions in forensic pathology I've ever heard. Specialist equipment that could obtain fingerprints from waterlogged remains was available elsewhere in the country, but the logistics required to transport that many bodies at the time was prohibitive, so a decision was made to remove the hands of the deceased for testing. This was carried out without family approval and even typing these words I'm horrified this took place. However, it MIGHT have been deemed acceptable if those responsible for the process didn't make a complete mess of it. Bodies were given to the families without hands and some families were told they couldn't view the remains of their loved ones by undertakers causing untold additional grief and trauma.

Shepherd is clear that he wasn't responsible for making the decision to remove the hands and had no knowledge of the decision at the time. Understandably this element of the disaster still haunts him and the subsequent hearings and court cases ran for years. I remember reading about the case years ago and being utterly dumbstruck by the incompetence and lack of professionalism shown at the time. Reading Shepherd's involvement in the case, I couldn't help wondering if this memoir was a way for him to 'set the story straight' once and for all on this case and clear his name.

Several other cases the author chose to include were controversial and again I began to speculate that this might be the only avenue for a professional in his field to get his version on the record for the wider public; outside of legal testimony that is.

Some high profile cases - which will be recognised by UK readers - are included and the picture I began to see emerging is that Shepherd felt under valued and under utilised in some cases and unjustly criticised in others.

Interactions with his children and the slight overlap with his work made me uncomfortable and I wasn't surprised - and neither was he - when his marriage broke down. In fact, it reminded me quite a lot of the personal account of Peter Faulding in his memoir What Lies Beneath - My Life as a Forensic Search and Rescue Expert.

I deeply admire the work carried out by forensic pathologists, medical examiners, coroners and those who look after the dead and perhaps that's why I've read so many of their books.* While it's too soon for another just now, True Stories from the Morgue by John Merrick is on my TBR and likely to be the next one on the topic at some point in the future.

Unnatural Causes - The Life and Many Deaths of Britain's Top Forensic Pathologist by Dr Richard Shepherd is recommended for readers with an interest in forensic medicine.

* Other memoirs like this you may want to explore:
- All the Living and the Dead: A Personal Investigation Into the Death Trade by Hayley Campbell
- Personal Effects: What Recovering the Dead Teaches Me About Caring for the Living by Robert A. Jensen
- Curtains: Adventures of an Undertaker-in-Training by Tom Jokinen
- Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner by Judy Melinek MD & T.J. Mitchell

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: The Secret History of Food by Matt Siegel

The Secret History of Food - Strange But True Stories About the Origins of Everything We Eat by Matt Siegel is a book to tantalise the taste buds. Full of spiced and biting humour, it was an interesting read but certainly doesn't cover the origins of 'everything' we eat.

I was able to appreciate the author's punny sense of humour from the Table of Contents where I read Chapter 9 is entitled Forbidden Berries or Appetite for Distraction; a play on Appetite for Destruction, the title of an 1980s album by my favourite band Guns N' Roses.

Most illuminating was the section on corn, taking us through just how many products contain corn or corn products and how much of it is fed to livestock, making corn the most produced crop in the world.

A little more quote-worthy was the section about vanilla:

"Vanilla is second in price only to saffron, a kilo of which can sell for as much as $30,000 because harvesting it requires handpicking the stigmas of 150,000 to 200,000 flowers (at three stigmas per flower)." Page 93

Pollinated by hand, vanilla plants can take months to pollinate and then another six to nine months before the fruits are ready to harvest by hand.

"But at that point they don't have any flavour, so they need to be cured and conditioned through a process that involves hand massaging them, laying them in the sun to dry each morning, and wrapping them in blankets and tucking them in at night to sweat, which can take another nine months." Page 95

The author goes on to explain vanilla can be worth more than the price of silver, but that's with shrinkage and assuming you don't lose any of the crop from fungus, pests, disease or theft!

In medieval times, bread was baked once a week due to the labour required to mill the grain, make fire, wait for the dough to rise and the efficiency of baking larger loaves less frequently.

"And remember this was before modern preservatives, so six-day-old bread back then would have been much harder and staler (on average) than six-day-old bread today. In fact, there are accounts of peasant breads in France so hard that they had to be chopped with axes to slice them." Page 129

Sure makes me glad for the bread we enjoy today.

The chapter on feasting was full of fun historical facts. A helmeted cock involved crowning a roasted cock or hen with a helmet, tucking a silver or gold leaf lance under its wing and posing it on top of a roasted piglet so it looked like the bird was riding the pig into battle. In the same vein, a redressed swan was roasted and redressed in its skin and held upright with skewers as if it were still alive. Gross! The same thing was done with peacocks, however the finishing touch involved a ball of cloth soaked with alcohol in the peacock's mouth that was lit just before serving to make it look as though the peacock was breathing fire. Kind of makes the Bombay Alaska look a little tame doesn't it?

Loved the section on chilli:

"So eating a pepper isn't unlike, say, being stung by a bee, licking a nine-volt battery, or burning your tongue on scalding hot coffee - all sensations intended to warn the body of exposure to harm and if necessary trigger a series of protective reflexes to mitigate the effects and prevent further exposure." Page 165

Siegel outlines the body's physical reactions to spicy foods and what they're in aid of. The body sweats to flush your system, your nose runs to protect your nasal passages, your eyes water to protect your corneas, you salivate to purge your mouth and coughing and sneezing protects your airways.

I always wondered why cultures who live in hot and humid climates love hot and spicy food, but the author gives us the answer:

"...as chilies also happen to kill bacteria and mask the taste and odor of foods that aren't the freshest. This would explain why spicy foods tend to be more prevalent in hotter climates, where higher temperatures make food preservation more challenging, places like Central America, southern Asia, and Indonesia." Page 170

Siegel explains that chilies may have helped preserve food before the age of refrigeration, and the sweating that takes place when eating spicy foods has a cooling effect that helps regulate body temperature. Yeah, that doesn't work for me personally, but wow, I didn't know that.

While tidbits like this were interesting and informative, I wouldn't have said Siegel discloses many 'secrets' of food but the title is certainly more appetising than 'facts and history about some foods that you might not know'.

The Secret History of Food - Strange But True Stories About the Origins of Everything We Eat doesn't live up to title by containing the origins of everything we eat, but it does cover a lot of things we eat and was an informative read. It certainly made me hungry, although that's not hard!

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: When Brains Dream by Antonio Zadra & Robert Stickgold

Published in 2022, When Brains Dream - Exploring the Science and Mystery of Sleep by Antonio Zadra & Robert Stickgold was my latest choice in books about sleep and dreaming. Largely academic in nature, the book mentions many scientific sleep studies and may be a dry read for some.

According to the authors, we dream in all phases of sleep and most people dream for at least two-thirds of the night. Some researchers believe we dream all night but if you don't believe you dream at all, you do, you just don't remember your dreams on waking. Often something can happen later in the day to trigger the memory of a dream and I can still conjure the memory of dreams from days, weeks and months ago.

I'll admit I was excited early on in this book when I read:

"... we can think of dreams as either real life; portals into equally real or alternate worlds; messages and prophecies from the gods; unfulfilled wishes; random brain noise; nocturnal entertainment; communications from the future, the dead, or other minds; sources of personal insights, problem solving, and creativity; or a window into memory processing." Page 9

Hopes the authors were going to expound on each of these topics were soon dashed as I realised I was in for a scientific and academic look into dreams and dreaming. Having said that, I'd love to share my key takeaways.

It was reaffirming to read about the process proving stimuli received during sleep like smells and sounds can actively influence the dream you're having. I'm pretty sure we've all experienced the phenomenon where the sound of your alarm begins as something else in your dream before you wake up and realise it's actually your alarm going off. In one study, the smell of a burnt match or drop of water on a participant's forehead had a direct impact on the content of the dream they were having. Interesting, right? Although I did find myself chuckling at the thought of the participant waking up to a researcher with a lit match near their head.

Also reaffirming previous learned information was the correlation between the use of smart phones and insomnia. You can't fail to notice that most people turn to their phones in moments that were once spent zoning out or gazing into the distance while waiting for something or someone. Now, any moment of spare or dead time has users reaching for their device, however this leaves no time for the brain to process thoughts during the day.

Later, when the lights go out and the phones and tablets are silent and on charge, our mind is flooded with all sorts of thoughts from the day. This makes sense as pre-sleep is the brain's opportunity to sort through the day and tag any concerns for later processing during sleep. With that in mind, we should allow ourselves to zone out and be with our thoughts more often. This doesn't mean we need to meditate but you don't need to kill time or multitask all the time, just be with your thoughts.

"Our dreams rarely come to neat endings. The most common end for a dream report is, 'And then I woke up.' the dreaming brain doesn't plot out whole stories." Page 142

When we dream the mind wanders from topic to topic in a haphazard manner in the same way our daytime thoughts have no logical structure during waking hours. Another interesting tidbit in When Brains Dream was the fact that those who were born before the introduction of colour TV actually dreamed in black and white about 40 per cent of the time.

On the content of dreams:

"At a more global level, the dreamer is usually faced with some kind of problem. These can range from relatively minor difficulties - planning a course of action, trying to make sense of a situation, or finding a lost object - to serious physical or psychological dangers such as being lost, falling ill, facing interpersonal conflicts, dealing with environmental hazards, or fleeing from physical perils." Page 157

Typical dreams include dreaming of falling, being late for something, being chased, and school and study related dreams. Do you have a recurrent dream? I'd love to know!

I'm a lucid dreamer but researchers have now been able to communicate with advanced lucid dreamers in a lab with a set of pre-arranged signals. When the participant enters a dream state they communicate with researchers via a series of eye movements at the beginning of a pre-set task and when they complete it. Now that's wild!

I enjoyed seeing the list of reality checks to perform while dreaming to determine if you're awake or dreaming, they include:

"These can take many forms, including trying to read, staring at yourself in a mirror, turning on a light in a dark room, or trying to push your fingers through your palm. In most dreams, you will experience difficulties reading, mirror reflections quickly become unstable, light switches fail to work properly, and your fingers may pass through your palm or give rise to other unusual sensations." Page 238

According to the authors, carrying out these reality checks can help you realise if you're dreaming or not.

It's widely accepted that most people can't read in their dreams, but after reading this book I focussed on my lucid dreaming ability and was actually able to read in a dream I was having! I was on a plane and was able to read the title of the book the person across the aisle from me was reading. I could also read the text on a computer screen that showed an email sent by the previous passenger. Apparently this is a rare feat so I'm pretty proud to have taken my love of reading into my dreams.

When Brains Dream - Exploring the Science and Mystery of Sleep by Antonio Zadra & Robert Stickgold is recommended for the dedicated non fiction reader familiar with the basics of sleep who wants to delve into the latest scientific developments.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: Mortal Monarchs - 1000 Years of Royal Deaths by Suzie Edge

Mortal Monarchs - 1000 Years of Royal Deaths by Suzie Edge gives the reader a short overview of the deaths of 48 monarchs in England and Scotland over the last 1000 years. Beginning with the demise of Harold Godwinson in 1066 and concluding with the death of George VI in 1952, a chapter is devoted to each monarch.

Listening on audiobook, the chapters vary from approx 4-15 minutes in duration, and I found them to be just the right length. However, as I realised just how many deaths the author needed to cover, the repetitive format did start to become a little tedious. Fortunately the short chapters meant I could return to the book every now and again for another monarch's bloody passing from consumption, sweating sickness, dysentery or war wounds.

The author is a medical doctor and historian and when listening to the chapter dedicated to King Henry V who died of dysentery in 1492, I learned more about how the body expels a pathogen through either vomiting or diarrhoea.

"Diarrhoea is the body's way of getting rid of bacteria causing problems within the gut by emptying out toxins or poisons fast. For faeces to leave the body in a hurry, we cannot just rely on the action of peristalsis, the normal push/pull movement of the gut tubes that move the human waste along. If you still need more of a push, then the abdominal muscles will help by contracting. They squeeze as hard as they can to push out faecal matter fast. That is why it hurts. It can also be worryingly dehydrating as water is pulled into the gut to help dilute and remove the offending bacteria." Chapter 17

This was a huge revelation to me. Firstly, I had no idea that water is pulled into the gut from around the body, which is what causes the dehydration symptoms of headache and so on. Secondly, I had no clue that the water was pulled into the gut in order to dilute the offending bacteria and ease its passage. I guess I never gave much thought to where the water came from or why it was there, but next time - let's hope it's far into the future - I'll be more informed.

Fortunately, Mortal Monarchs was published during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II and so it doesn't include her death in 2022. This does date the book now that Charles III is King, but as a royalist, I don't feel the book is lacking. I think it'd be strange to read an updated version where her cause of death was included and discussed in this manner.

Mortal Monarchs will appeal to trivia and history buffs and I just wish I could retain all of the monarchs names in order and the dates and means of their passing.

Having read Vital Organs - A History of the World's Most Famous Body Parts and History Stinks! Poo Through the Ages, I continue to learn from Dr Suzie Edge, so I'm looking forward to the release of History Stinks! Wee, Snot and Slime Through Time in 2025. I can't imagine what I'll learn about the human body but I'll be sure to let you know!

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: Sociopath by Patric Gagne

Patric Gagne is a sociopath, and in her memoir of the same title she shares her experience growing up knowing she was different but not understanding why. From a very young age Gagne knew she wasn't the same as other children because she didn't feel guilt, shame or empathy. Raised in a wealthy neighbourhood in California, Gagne was mean to other children, lied, stole, snuck out at night to stalk neighbours and trespassed in their homes even as a young girl. Without fear to stifle her desires, she engaged in very risky behaviour that was hard to listen to at times.

Sociopath - A Memoir by Patric Gagne is a reflective novel about the author's continual struggle to resist her urges and relieve the pressure building inside her to do bad things. I was surprised that her willingness to be open about her transgressions didn't extend to sexual development and she doesn't mention any sexual activity in her memoir. Perhaps this was a conscious choice for her family's sake as Gagne is now married with a family, which isn't a spoiler by the way. That aside, when a person is open enough to admit doing physical harm to another and genuinely doesn't care what other people think, surely a little sexual promiscuity - if indeed there was any - isn't that bad by comparison?

Later in life Gagne learns about sociopathy and begins a lifelong desire to understand everything she can about it. She reads all the information she can get her hands on in the library and her study continues well into her adulthood living in Los Angeles. After noticing a serious lack of information and resources for sociopaths seeking help, Gagne decides she will help her own kind and embarks on a pathway studying clinical psychology, eventually earning a PhD in clinical psychology by examining the relationship between sociopathy and anxiety.

Gagne points out that sociopaths comprise around 5% of the population and includes discussions held with her therapist and lecturers in a years long reflection on her struggle to understand and accept herself.

Working full time in the music industry as a manager while studying, Gagne kept herself busy to limit opportunities to do bad things, however repeated examples of what seemed like a lavish lifestyle - including a reference to attending a party at the Playboy mansion - made this reader's eyes roll. I accept that wanting to understand people from all walks of life doesn’t just mean those with less than you, it also means people with more than you, but I certainly felt that well and truly on display here. Ultimately though, after finishing her memoir, I am left feeling grateful for all Gagne has contributed to the field of sociopathy.

I recommend Sociopath - A Memoir by Patric Gagne for readers who think they might be a sociopath or those who have one in their family, work or friend circle. While interested in the topic of sociopathy, psychopathy and anti-social personality disorders, I wasn't expecting such a deep and protracted look at one patient's struggle to deal with her condition.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: History Stinks! Poo Through the Ages by Suzie Edge

After enjoying Vital Organs - A History of the World's Most Famous Body Parts by Suzie Edge, I thought I'd give her latest non fiction book published this year History Stinks! Poo Through the Ages a look in. Geared towards a much younger audience, medical doctor and historian Suzie Edge does a great job teaching young readers about history through the lens of toilets and yes, poo!

Beginning with the Romans and their public foricae comprising a marble bench with openings side by side over a communal gutter with fresh flowing water, the author takes us through the latrines, cesspits, garderobes, chamberpots, privvies and water closets across time.

Uniting her medical knowledge with her penchant for history, the author also covers a variety of diseases caused by poor sanitation along with some humorous factoids like this one.

In 1972, archaeologists in York in northern England discovered the fossilised remains of an enormous human turd. It was discovered along with wood, cloth and leather that was left behind from the Viking settlement centuries earlier. Edge tells us:

"This 1000 year old poo measured a gigantic 20 centimetres long and 5 centimetres wide and is believed to be the biggest example of a fossilised human poo ever found." Chapter 5

That certainly had me hurriedly pressing pause on the audiobook and rushing to find a tape measure so I can only imagine the reactions of the 7+ target audience. The fossil is on public display in York - complete with the stench cleverly recreated by scientists - but finding out it was accidentally dropped in 2003 when being handled during a school trip and subsequently broke into 3 pieces was surprisingly distressing.

History Stinks! Poo Through the Ages is a novel way for kids to learn about history, sanitation, historical figures, medicine and archaeology although the topical jokes and 'did you know' sections did begin to irritate this adult reader after a while. That said, there's plenty to entertain and a lot to learn in this short audiobook, from what people in the Roman and Tudor periods used to wipe their bottoms to how astronauts poo in space.

A sneak peek at the author's current writing project tells me that her next offering in the series History Stinks! Wee, Snot and Slime Through Time is due to be published in 2025 and I might just have to take a wee look.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★