Fascinating look at the work of Harold Gillies, pioneering and developing plastic surgery for those damaged by the First World War. It features details about the lives and service of his patients, and the problems encountered by Gillies and the other surgeons at Queen’s Hospital, Sidcup. If you like history, medicine and an approachable and natural writing style in the vein of Bill Bryson, this is the book for you.

I received a free ARC copy of this via NetGalley and the publishers in return for an unbiased review. Apologies for the delay in providing this.

I had high expectations for this book, and although I enjoyed it overall, I felt like there was something lacking (I just don't know what). The descriptions of trench warfare were so intrinsic to the background of the plastic surgeons work that I found myself torn away from the one of the most compelling arts of the book. I think that says more about me and my grisly, macabre mind, than the weaving of the facts included in this book. They were very careful researched and put together and told in a very engaging and understandable way. when the book ended though, I was a little shook. It felt abrupt and I was waiting for more.

The face maker is a great overview of the treatment of face injuries in ww1 and the great work done by pioneering surgeons.

Fitzharris is an absolute master, she could write about anything and it would read like addictive, page-turning, narrative fiction. What she manages here is even more wonderful though, she is able to recount the history of Harold Gillies, a pioneer of plastic surgery. Thought of today as a somewhat shallow or superficial art, plastic surgery actually had the noblest of origins - in the reconstruction of wounded soldiers. The Facemaker is a wonderful addition to medical and military history, but I urge you to read it just for the pleasure of Fitzharris' storytelling.

Having studied WWI quite a bit, this was a fascinating insight into the medical side of the war and how it impacted the field of modern medicine. Thank you for the ARC!

The tagline explains what this is about: a surgeon's attempts to rebuild the faces of those disfigured by the First World War. At the beginning there is advance notice that there will be photographs. Close to the hospital where the surgery took place, benches were painted blue to warn passers-by that there may be injured men sitting there. Any idea that cosmetic surgery is frivolous is soon dismissed.

Harold Gillies was a surgeon who joined the Red Cross during the Great War to help treat the wounded. Driven by the sights he witnesses and pure compassion, he set about creating new procedures to rebuild the faces of the severely damaged men. At this time warfare outpaced the medical skills necessary to repair, as one nurse said: " The science of healing stood baffled before the science of destroying." This type of plastic surgery was completely new, so Gillies had to devise his own methods as he went along.

This was the first industrial war and nobody knew what to expect. The book uses evidence from soldiers who fought in the war, from their dairies and memoirs, with vivid descriptions of of the battlefield, trenches, injuries and the dead. It is intensely detailed. The data, figures of deaths and wounded as well as information about the weapons are included, but the humanity is what stands out. Except that where amputees where seen as heroes, the facially disfigured "caused feelings of revulsion and disgust."

There are many individual stories included and by offering personal cases it makes the Gillies' achievement even more remarkable. He helped repair injuries but also treated people with dignity they had not received previously. His work was a turning point in medicine that is still vital today. This intensely researched book goes a long way to honour his life and work. Recommended.

I love Lindsey Fitzharris’s work. The Five was grundbreaking in the way it (finally) centred the women killed by Jack the Ripper rather than the identity of the murderer and attempted to piece together impressions of their lives. The Butchering Art is one of my all-time favourite pieces of historical writing. In the Facemaker she turns her attention to Harold Gillies, a pioneering plastic surgeon who focused his talents on rebuilding the faces of men ravaged by the First World War. It’s a difficult subject and is challenging emotionally and not for the squeamish but Fitzharris (as you would expect) goes beyond the advances and setbacks in the procedures creating a wonderfully humane account that considering the particular significance of facial trauma compared to other serious injuries and well as the art involved in this type of surgery and the way that Gillies acknowledged the significance of morale to the healing of his patients, regularly organising sports and theatre events. It is meticulously researched, wonderfully written and shines a light on an important part of medical history that has had far-reaching consequences beyond war.

The Facemaker once again shows Dr Lindsey Fitzharris on top form when writing narrative medical history.
This book, based on Dr Fitzharris's own extensive research, focuses around the professional life of pioneering surgeon Harold Gillies.

Gillies was the surgeon who chose to help those wounded from WW1 who have frequently been left in the shadows; those with horrendous facial injuries. To do this, Gillies built on the extremely limited previous work on facial reconstruction, and developed it into a huge array of innovative techniques that made the field of plastic surgery a distinctive and respected field.

As both a historian and a tutor of history, I have read widely on WW1, yet I have seldom encountered so engaging a writer. Highly recommended to those interested in #history # warfare #medicalhistory etc. Essential reading for those interested in #ww1 #historyofsurgery #militarymedicine #militarymedicalhistory

A truly remarkable book.

The Facemaker tells the story of Harold Gillies - a pioneer in the field of plastic surgery. Through the course of the First World War, it charts developments in the ways surgeons would repair facial injuries - a discipline that was often overlooked due to the stigma associated with facial injuries or abnormalities. It shows how Gillies began his career as a doctor before studying eminent plastic surgeons and dentists across the world (Gillies was one of the first to recognise the importance of dentistry to facial reconstructions). At the outbreak of war, as the number of injuries began to rocket, Gillies was able to convince the War Office of the need not only for a specific hospital to treat facial injuries, but also to create a system of tags that highlighted what level of treatment a soldier had already received. As the War progressed, Gillies honed his skills as a surgeon and was able to develop ground-breaking approaches to injuries that would have been untreatable otherwise.

The book uses diary extracts from soldiers to give the feel of really living through the events of the time and does not shy away from describing the injuries soldiers received. The book, rightly so, presents Gillies in glowing terms. However, it is the way it captures the importance of the work he did, especially to the soldiers, that really caught me. And, unfortunately, the way it captured the sadness for those soldiers who could not come to terms with their injuries or the sadness Gillies felt when a surgery was unsuccessful.

While, this was a non-fiction book, it felt like a novel in the way that it read, the story was so engrossing. Excellent.

Fitzharris' biography on Harold Gillies presents an insight into the side of World War One most forget: the medical, and what follows the injured off the battlefield.

I'm a historian and archaeologist with a particular interest in WW1 history, and even with my years of study, I had never seen this man's work before. It's a real shame, as Fitzharris writes about Gillies' dedication to his craft and passion for an upcoming medical treatment, even as others dismissed the treatment.

The stories behind the injured men, compound the toll these injuries must have had on their daily lives beyond the First World War, with chapters beginning with their lives and sometimes seeing their end (in both bittersweet and heartbreaking varieties). Fitzharris treats information and accounts with great care and sympathy, whilst also bringing across well-researched records. It was intriguing to find out how Gillies' work was later used to pioneer gender reassignment surgery for transgender patients.

I cannot recommend this biography enough to people.

Fitzharris’ account of the terrible facial injuries endured by the troops during the First World War is not only fascinating, but it’s beautifully written in such a compelling way.
The writer has such talent at bringing to life the horror of what happened but also the skill of plastic surgeon Gillies and his contemporaries, including artists helping to create masks.
It’s fascinating to hear about the techniques tried, from masks to skin grafts and reconstructing entire faces.
He brings home that these were real men with real lives and the psychological effects of severe facial trauma could cause devastation.
Gillies’ work was the fore-runner of plastic surgery today.

This was an engaging read and very well researched. The writing style very much brought the stories to life and gave an insight into the real people behind the medical science. The book focuses on one doctor, whilst also bringing in work which other practitioners were doing to give a very well rounded picture of the very beginnings of plastic/cosmetic surgery as we know it now. Highly recommended.

I find this part of history so very interesting anyway, and this book was everything I hoped for and more. It's a brilliantly written and powerful book that should be read by anyone with an interest in history and medicine.

Award-winning writer and medical historian, Lindsey Fitzharris tells the story of pioneering WW1 surgeon Harold Gillies, his extensive team and the men they treated. WW1 presented unprecedented challenges for British medicine, plunging medical staff into near-uncharted territory where, as one nurse remarked, “The science of healing stood baffled before the science of destroying.” New or “improved” warfare technologies from ferocious flamethrowers to penetrating bullets, as well as the trench as a central, organising space, resulted in enormous levels of severe facial injuries. Injuries, as Fitzharris underlines, that meant, for those who survived, the chances of being welcomed back into society were slender,

“Whereas a missing leg might elicit sympathy and respect, a damaged face often caused feelings of revulsion and disgust. In newspapers of the time, maxillofacial wounds—injuries to the face and jaw—were portrayed as the worst of the worst, reflecting long-held prejudices against those with facial differences. The Manchester Evening Chronicle wrote that the disfigured soldier “knows that he can turn on to grieving relatives or to wondering, inquisitive strangers only a more or less repulsive mask where there was once a handsome or welcome face.”

Fitzharris, who strikes an impressive balance between erudite and accessible, tells the story of a group of these injured men, and the people who searched for practical ways to help them. Initially, her story focuses on Harold Gillies, a surgeon who's associated with developing concepts of plastic surgery as we know it today. But she broadens out from Gillies to stress the crucial role of teamwork in the formulation of intricate, creative, treatment protocols. Gillies’s own team included nurses, dentists, and even artists including Henry Tonks, later famed for his work at the Slade, and Kathleen Scott, widow of the explorer, who produced drawings, paintings, and sculptures to aid in visualising the pre-injury faces of shattered patients.

Men who received extensive facial wounds during the war, were dealing with far more than the immediate consequences of catastrophic injuries. They were also haunted by the prospect of becoming outcasts, as well as grappling overwhelming feelings of loss of their very identities. In their culture, as in many others, the face was laden down with symbolic meaning, linked to the self, even the soul. For many years a scarred face - or any face perceived as somehow deviating from supposed norms - was connected to notions of villainy or signifiers of degeneracy, Fitzharris recounts how during the Napoleonic War there was a widespread practice of comrades killing any facially disfigured battle mates, “mercy killings” to save them from later shame or ostracism. In many WW1 narratives from news reports to fiction, those with significant facial wounds were commonly represented as passive, nameless victims,

“In France, they were called les gueules cassées (the broken faces), while in Germany they were commonly described as das Gesichts entstellten (twisted faces) or Menschen ohne Gesicht (men without faces). In Britain, they were known simply as the “Loneliest of Tommies”—the most tragic of all war victims—strangers even to themselves.”

Fitzharris sets out to document and combat these kinds of accounts, attempting to recentre Gillies’s wounded patients, in order to reinstate their individuality, attempting wherever possible to recover their ‘lost’ voices – drawing from an impressive array of drawings, diaries and memoirs. Overall, I found Fitzharris’s book persuasive and compelling, a well-crafted, insightful and meticulously researched, narrative - although it could also be quite harrowing to read, so definitely not one for the squeamish.

This is a fascinating, eminently readable, and thoroughly researched book: the extensive bibliography bears witness to the multiple eyewitness and diary accounts and medical textbooks from which the author has drawn the research.

I have always been fascinated by medical stories, so read them over a couple of days and was amazed by the many areas of medicine that this book covered and which were developed out of the necessities of battle during World War One: not only plastic surgery, a relatively fledgling science in the period but also blood transfusion, skin grafts, anesthetics and a multiplicity of other aspects. including the design and creation of new surgical instruments for use by surgeons, dentists, artists, photographers, and others who participated in the herculean task of rebuilding shattered faces and making them both aesthetically acceptable and serviceable.

Young men whose faces were badly disfigured were all too often not regarded with the same sympathy as those whose wounds were more societally acceptable. Indeed, an ugly face has long been considered as signifying moral turpitude, and all too frequently, such individuals are spurned and scorned by society, unable to hold down jobs or marry and have children of their own. As a result, often deep depression which sometimes resulted in suicide would result if the victims were left untreated if the surgeries, which were almost always multiple, as well as painful, were botched or went awry.

Face masks, both partial and full face, were developed to cover the damaged areas of faces, but they were uncomfortable to wear and gave the wearer a fixed look, meaning that expressiveness of the features was no longer possible. Also, the mask remained the same, even though the wearer ages, and damage that made it difficult for the mask wearer to eat, or breathe, properly, was not repaired. Consequently, despite the pain and length of treatment and convalescence required when parts, or indeed whole faces had to be rebuilt by Harold Gillies and his team at the hospital in Sidcup, Kent, most victims found it preferable to undergo such treatment. Of course, it was not always successful, and the author does not shy away from documenting the failures, too. Also, some of those successfully treated and returned to the battlefields later died of different injuries. Frequently, convalescence and even treatments were abbreviated, dictated by the exigencies of war and the need to keep sufficient soldiers, sailors, and airmen fighting. These decisions were not made by Gillies and his team, but by others with whom it was impossible to argue. However, the book is, in general, very uplifting in its message that, even out of the tragedy of war, much good may come, and the fledging practice of plastic surgery, developed by Gillies and others during World War One and continued during World War Two has paved the way for so much modern treatment, not just for cosmetic purposes, but for burns victims, victims of accidents, gender reassignment procedures, and a number of other uses which have made the lives of patients not just bearable, but fulfilling and happy.

I heartily commend this book, not just to the specialist, but also to the general reader who will, like me, learn a great deal by reading it.
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The Facemaker by Lindsey Fitzharris. I have been following Lindsey on Instagram for ages and I have so been looking forward to this book coming out. Harold Gillies, a man who really loves golf finds himself the main man during the First World War when it came to reconstructing faces. As one of the first wars fought with things other than swords at close range, people were having noses and jaws and their whole face blown off by bullets and shrapnel and this brave man and his team of surgeons and nurses worked out some incredible ways to give them their faces back. As Lindsey says in the book, becoming facially disfigured is a lot different than losing a leg or an arm. It’s your very identity that gets taken away. I loved this book just as much as I thought I would. It was wonderfully well written and incredibly researched. Lindsey is respectful but detailed writing about some of the injuries people came home with. It’s just so interesting and flows so well. It’s obviously quite gory and graphic but it’s also real life. *This book was gifted to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Mainly based around the pioneering work of Harold Gillies, this book told the story of plastic surgery and its importance to injured veterans through the First World War.

I found this book is so interesting, covering groundbreaking work that I knew would have happened, but never really thought about. It was a good balance of information and human backstory and compassion.

Whilst I am grateful to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a fair review, because it was on my Kindle, there were no pictures, which I understand the physical book has. A quick internet search showed me the amazing work of Gillies, which really bought home the amazing work he did and I would strongly recommend buying or borrowing the book.

*Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.*

I cannot say how much I loved this book.

Lindsey Fitzharris writes with real emotion and passion. The whole subject is so well researched and detailed and yet reads so easily (I actually found this more readable than 'The Butchering Art', Fitzharris' book on the history of surgery - yet this is also an incredible piece of work).

'The Facemaker' is a real emotional rollercoaster. I was finding myself getting choked up at some bits; it was so destroying, hearing about the soldiers who were turned away from their families, or rejected by their girlfriends / wives because of the damage done to their faces. And yet you couldn't help but cheer every time a small success was reached in the field of plastic surgery, and boo the "rival" surgeons claiming that it was pointless and / or their way was better.

I really hope that Fitzharris puts out another book soon; this one was absolutely fantastic.

Totally gripping biography of Harold Gillies, the pioneering plastic surgeon who dedicated himself to rebuilding the faces of the soldiers so terribly disfigured in WWI. Accessibly written with a perfect balance between military and medical history and the personal stories of the injured men.

A very engaging read but one I feel would have been even better with a tighter focus. The author does flag up the potential problems of such a broad outlook in the introduction so I wasn't disappointed as such. It feels strange to say this about a book covering The Great War but I was just left wanting more. Which is, of course, no bad thing.