This was an absolutely fabulous book, I loved every minute of it. There was the perfect balance of scientific and medical jargon and knowledge alongside personal stories of both the surgeons and the patients involved. I've learnt so much about not just the first world war, but also surgery generally and in particular the transgender work Gillies carried out. I think his reasoning that what he did was not about judgement by him, but was all about making another humans life better whether that was replacing parts of their face or allowing them to fully complete their gender transition. Overall a fantastic book that everyone should read.

The Facemaker is a thoroughly researched, well-written exploration of the development of cosmetic surgery with a particular emphasis on facial disfigurement. The book breaks down both how techniques were developed and the care with which soldiers were treated both physically & mentally. All in, an absolutely fascinating read and one I will return to time & again.

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.

This is an important book as it talks about the horror of war and a man who worked to improve the life of soldiers who were disfigured during WWI.
There's a lot to learn about WWI, its horrors are not well known as they should be and this is something that people should read to remember and to learn.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Having studied WW1 extensively as part of my history degree there was a lot in this book that was familiar to me. I also studied the Social History of Medicine which fascinated me so I hoped I would be in for a treat. And I was! This book is a brilliant account of the horrors of World War One and is well written and understandable for readers who are new to the subject. A lot of it is gory and the available file of photos from the publishers is not for the faint hearted. But that's what our men went through and I think it's a story that deserves repeating as future generations come along. The way the story of Gillies is interwoven with the progress (ironic choice of descriptor!) of the war is very well done and I was amazed at the progress made in plastic surgery methods in such a relatively short time. A recommended read but I am not sure that the cover shown on NetGalley will draw in many readers, it's a bit gruesome. With thank to the publishers, the author and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this excellent book.

An interesting book, although there wasn't much in this book which was new to me. I felt that the book is clearly written for an American audience. It is a useful reminder of the utter horror of the First World War.

What a phenomenal book this is! What could have turned out to be a dry as dust book is so far from that, I would have given it 6 Stars if I could.

It is an amazing biography and one gets a real sense of time and place and people with all of the supporting facts and information that Lindsey Fitzharris includes. I have highlighted so many paragraphs in the book for future rereading that it may be easier if I just reread the book.

Harold Gillies was so dedicated to his calling as The Facemaker that it is almost a surprise that he did not collapse from the stress and the overwork and went on to have a career outside of the army and lived to the then ripe old age of 78.

Please do read this book, there is just so much to be gained from it. My review can only do it scant justice.

This is the story of Harold Gillies, a gifted surgeon who, with his team, set about the task of rebuilding the faces of soldiers damaged during the First World War. Whilst servicemen who lost limbs were looked upon with sympathy, the others, with facial wounds, were shunned as to look at them was difficult. Which in turn, often made them shy away from normal society.
I like the way this book is written. Its well-researched facts are presented in an interesting and easy-to-read way. Some non-fiction books become dry and stale in places but this maintained my interest throughout.
It also serves as a history of some of the disastrous events of WWI. Using eyewitness accounts interspersed with facts makes for a better reading experience, in my opinion.
This is a book I would recommend to anyone with an interest in the period.

My thanks to #NetGalley, #PenguinPressUK, and #LindseyFitzharris for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

12 Summer Non-Fiction Releases to Have on Your Radar📚🫶 If you are always looking for exciting upcoming releases to add to you TBR piles, here are 12 non-fiction summer releases you won’t want to miss being published in June, July and August.

The Facemaker: One Surgeon’s Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I by Lindsey Fitzharris
- historian Lindsey Fitzharris tells the story of the pioneering plastic surgeon Harold Gillies, who dedicated himself to restoring the faces and the identities of a generation brutalised by war.

Having read a fair amount of books on the First World War (it has always held a fascination for me and is one of the reasons I studied history at university), I looked forward to reading this book although (arrogantly!) I wasn’t sure how much I would learn from it - it turns out, an awful lot! Lindsey Fitzharris has created an epic work that focuses on the story of Harold Gillies a pioneering plastic surgeon who worked on those with facial disfigurements during the First World War. However, the book manages to interweave his story with the war’s timeline and touches on themes and events like art, photography, developments in technology, the home front, women’s involvement, the psychological impact of warfare, key battles…I could go on.

But obviously the main focus of the book is Gillies’s work and the innovations led by him, those he worked with directly and some of his contemporaries. It is not an easy read, both in terms of the graphic descriptions of some of the injuries and in understanding some of the science. But it is well written and absolutely fascinating and I found the impact on the mental health of the patients (and those who looked after them) particularly interesting.

I also enjoyed reading about Gillies’s post war career and was so pleased to find that he continued to innovate in the area of plastic surgery and that, eventually, his contributions to the field were recognised. I wish to thank and praise the author for writing this wonderful book which, I have no doubt, will bring further justified attention and plaudits to Gillies.

Thank you also to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

A fascinating book from Lindsey Fitzharris, which would appeal to so many readers - whether interested in medical issues or not.

The Facemaker is not just the story of one doctor's efforts to improve the treatment of badly maimed and disfigured WWI personnel. It tells how people from many diverse backgrounds - medical, creative, artistic - came together inspired by his lead to establish plastic surgery as a distinct branch of treatment for facial disfigurement.

While many passages about Gillies' techniques are - of necessity - quite detailed, Fitzharris strikes a delicate balance, providing information without being gratuitously gory or voyeuristic. Images have been chosen carefully to illustrate the medical work, but also the conditions under which it was carried out. The photos depict some of the patients themselves at leisure in the wards too, bringing them to the reader as people - not simply as case histories. There is a great deal of social history woven into The Facemaker; it is not merely a catalogue of medical advancements or a record of Gillies' (remarkably interesting!) life. The book touches on attitudes towards war, people with disfigurements and disabilities, and how class played a part, and it offers a glimpse of women's contributions at home, as part of the war effort and at work in the medical profession.

All in all, a super book, which I raced through!

This is a fascinating book exploring the work of Harold Gillies, a pioneer in the medicine and art of plastic surgery, developing in response to the horrors of the industrialised war of World War I.

New weapons led to facial injuries rarely seen before, certainly not on this scale, and this required new practice to provide soldiers and veterans with a chance, not only to eat and close eyelids, but also to live with themselves. Facial injuries weren't viewed with the same level of heroism as other forms of injury and often led to depression and social ostracism. The bloody toll of WWI is recounted alongside the professional lives of Gillies and others working to heal the most taboo of wounds that turned men into monsters when the real monster was war itself.

I can't say this book is enjoyable to read, but it is a fabulous introduction to a truly fascinating area of surgery and provides a different perspective on the Great War and its legacies.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and Lindsey Fitzharris for the chance to read this ARC in return for an honest review.

I had not read the author's first book and was sceptical about reading a book set in the horrors of WW1 - I had read that it was possible to request the photographs and they did put some of the descriptive writing into context.

This was such an interesting read about plastic surgery and facial reconstruction. The advent of blood transfusions and how anaesthesia was administered was well described with anecdotes from various sources all well referenced at the end of the book.
It was, by definition, gory in parts but together with the photographs it was marvellous to see how Gillies ideas and notions played out both alone and in collaboration with others.

It was a book I found hard to put down - I wanted to know more and read more

If you have an interest in how lives (and faces) were rebuilt - and sadly sometimes not - then this is a really interesting read.

Definitely deserving of its 5 stars

First off it was the cover that sold this book for me. It intrigued me. This was a fantastic read and I was completely obsessed. There was so much information in this book I feel I must have missed some so im desperate to reread this.

I cannot shout loud enough about this cracking book!
I’ve never read a nonfiction book from cover to cover...but this is going to be followed by reading The Butchering Art for me...
I work with a team of plastic surgeons so this was a great draw for me...to read some of the history of the fascinating and incredible work they do, and how some of those practices and techniques came to be. I’ve often said that textbooks would be so much easier to immerse oneself in if they were written like fiction, and this book encompasses that in a totally amazing way. I have always felt in awe of the work the plastic surgeons do, and to read of this with all the historical info was outstanding!
Of course I’m sure they’ll know all the history but it won’t be stopping me from singing Lindsey Fitzharris’ praises...the research this lady has done is astounding...I could not sleep for a few nights after starting the book, adenaline pumping so fast around my body with the excitement!
Lindsey, you are a revelation...you have invigorated my reading and given me added joy in my work.
Many thanks to NetGalley for my ARC, my hardback copy is on order!!! This is my unbiased opinion...

What an absolutely engrossing book. I like anything with a medical background which is what drew me to this book. I thought I’d be reading about the development of plastic surgery and that up until the first world war any kind of facial surgery which attempted to reconstruct or alter the face would be in its infancy, and yet this couldn’t be further from the case. This book is brimming with interesting historical facts relating to, in particular rhinoplasty, that date much further back than even the 17th century.

It certainly isn’t for the squeamish. Though in the proof copy that I read there are no photographs, they do appear in the published book. As it was, some way into the book out of curiosity I googled ‘tubed pedicles’, firstly to see if the procedure is still used today but also because I just couldn’t picture what these would be like from the descriptions. I found a series of photographs on the BBC website for an exhibition called “The Faces of Battle” and could see the complexity of the treatment the soldiers received.

But as well as the story of Harold Gillies, originally an ENT surgeon who did so much during WW1 for the disfigured soldiers, this also tells first-hand accounts of what it was like in the trenches on the front line. Of those who did manage to survive, it’s little wonder that so many came back with serious PTSD. Then it was known as shell shock, but on reading of the suffering and utter misery these men went through, it is easy to see the terrible mental and psychological trauma they suffered. We’re told it was a bloody war, but it isn’t until you are drawn into the atmosphere of the trenches that you realise how completely gruesome and hopeless it really was.

It’s not an easy read, but is certainly an interesting one and I especially liked the way it is written. There are many accounts from injured soldiers, told in such a way that you almost feel like you’re reading something fictional and yet everything in the book has been painstakingly researched with quotes taken from letters, diaries, newspaper articles etc and imperceptibly woven into an absorbing narrative.

This is a wonderful book and it has been a real privilege to read it. It leaves you with a lasting picture of war, highlighting the dreadful loss of life and the utter misery it inflicts on everyone in its wake.

**Review to be posted to my blog close to publication date**

I adored Lindsey Fitzharris’ first book ‘The Butchering Art’ about the pioneer Joseph Lister. I was therefore rather beyond enthusiastic about reading ‘The Facemaker, One Surgeon's Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I”.

The Facemaker primarily details Harold Gillies an antipodean ENT surgeon who was a pioneer in facial reconstruction surgery (and plastic surgery) who throughout WW1 (and beyond) reconstructed a plethora of injured soldiers' faces. Fitzharris’ writing puts across the utter heartbreak some of the injured patients suffered and (sadly) some of the isolation felt by some of Gillies’ patients. But in stark contrast also the utter triumph and happiness some of his patients felt, following care under Gillies’ team.

Despite a focus on Harold Gillies, the book details other pioneers in the care or art of facial reconstructions. For example also included are the equally pioneering artists Francis Wood who created bespoke facial prosthetics and the equally inspiring Ladd, amongst the other spattering of artists and suregons such as Todd and the french dentist Valadier. Fitzharris shows the pure talent and perseverance some of the medical and artistic team ensured during WW1. I found some of the other historical titbits equally fascinating - such as the history of rhinoplasty and the medics Shushruta and Tagliacozzi's work.

I am a fan of medical history and the history of science, so I was almost certain to enjoy the book in some capacity. Fitzharris’ way with words made me almost forget I am not a big fan of military history. I did prefer Fitzharris’ first book (The Butchering Art), yet this doesn’t detract from the fact that Fitzharris is a phenomenal writer and has a way with words.

What a brilliant, brilliant book (so much so, I said it twice).

This important and untold history of facial surgery from World War One tracks both the origins of maxillofacial surgery and those who pioneered the treatment of soldiers with facial injuries. As Fitzharris explains, World War One saw the use of machinery and gas that had never been seen before. This meant the scale of injuries, including burns, was unprecedented.

It was shocking to read graphic detail of those facial injuries - Fitzharris does not hold back, but by doing this she shows how injury was misunderstood. It was heart-breaking to read stories of soldiers who suffocated by being placed on their backs post-injury and those who drowned in their own fluids.

I'm so glad that this well-researched and sensitively written work has been written; it is a triumph.

Wow historian Lindsey Fitzharris has done an amazing job at bringing to life the wonderful story of the pioneering plastic surgeon Harold Gillies. A man I have to admit I had no idea about but after reading the review by Clara C, I thouhgt hmmm this sounds quite interesting so i requested it.

The book is a bit like a long wikipedia page listing everything Gillies and his fellow doctors, dentists, medical fellows and nurses did to transform the lifes of the men and woman terribly disfigured during the first world war. By trial and error they learned so much about repairing the broken faces that they were brought in day after day to them. unfortunately a lot of the original drawings and diaries from Gillies and his team have been lost over time but there are some snippets on the internet to enhannce this book to support Fitzharris's book.

It seems after reading this that Gillies wasn't after fame and fortune, unlike todays plastic surgeons who have benifited from Gillies and his teams work but he just wanted to return some normalicy to these poor wretched faces, men who had served our country at our time of need and were shunned from the public when they returned because they were so damaged. The book is heartbreaking at times and really goes to show how pointless war ultimately is and its a lesson that still has not been learned even today, but with hidden heroes like this at least some good came from their sacrifice and their names should not be forgotten.

The Facemaker by Lindsay Fitzharris is an astonishing read. What a Hero Harold Gillies was. It certainly made me think more of the struggles the soldiers had and still have but now due to this pioneering work done by Dr Gilles there is more help for disfigurements in the plastic surgery field.

The book has been professionally researched and is another fantastic book by Lindsay.

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Press Uk for the ARC. This review is my own opinion.