{"product_id":"flesh-and-blood-9781471160790","title":"Flesh and Blood: A History of My Family in Seven Maladies","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e‘\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eFlesh and Blood\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eis living drama extracted like buried treasure from old documents and the hand-me-down stories of his relatives. I couldn't put it down’\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eJenny Agutter\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Intelligently structured and eloquently written, McGann’s book is a powerful homage to his family and Irish ancestry, to modern medicine and the welfare state.  Packed with lively anecdotes and insights on social history,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eFlesh and Blood\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eis a humble human story with a majestic theme' \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eTimes Literary Supplement.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e'Drama and reality repeatedly intersect in unexpected ways in this powerful and revealing memoir'\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eMail on Sunday\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e'Eloquent in its metaphors, this book is about memory, how it shapes us, and what we choose to pass on'\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eIrish Times\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e'With its mix of readable science and passionate sensibility,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eFlesh and Blood\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eis essentially an attempt to heal the old rift between science and art'\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eRadio Times\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHis family survived famine-ravaged Ireland in the 1850s.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHis ancestors settled in poverty-rife Victorian Liverpool, working to survive and thrive.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSome of them became soldiers serving on the Western Front.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne would be the last man to step off the SS Titanic as it sank beneath the icy waves. He would testify at the inquest.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is their story.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eStephen McGann is \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eDoctor Turner\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ein the BBC hit-drama series \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eCall the Midwife\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eFlesh and Blood \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eis the story of the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eMcGann\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e family as told through \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eseven sicknesses\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e – diseases, wounds or ailments that have afflicted Stephen’s relatives over the last century and a half, and which have helped mould him into what he now perceives himself to be. It’s the story of how health, or the lack of it, fuels our collective will and informs our personal narrative. Health is the motivational antagonist in the drama of our life story - circumscribing the extent of our actions, the quality of our character and the breadth of our ambition. Our maladies are the scribes that write the restless and mutating genome of our self-identity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eFlesh and Blood\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ecombines McGann’s passion for \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003egenealogy\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e with an academic interest in the social dimensions of medicine – and fuses these with a lifelong exploration of drama as a way to understand what motivates human beings to do the things they do. He looks back at scenes from his own life that were moulded by medical malady, and traces the crooked roots of each affliction through the lives of his  ancestors, whose grim maladies punctuate the public documents or military records of his family tree. In this way he asks a simple, searching question: how have these maladies helped to shape the story of the person he is today?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!----\u003e","brand":"Simon \u0026 Schuster Uk","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42637794771150,"sku":"9781471160790","price":24.9,"currency_code":"MYR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0601\/0883\/2974\/files\/9781471160790_a.png?v=1720165863","url":"https:\/\/www.bookxcess.com\/products\/flesh-and-blood-9781471160790","provider":"BookXcess","version":"1.0","type":"link"}