Stuart Simpson/Penguin Random House
Photo of author Lindsey Fitzharris
Discover the touching true story of Harold Gillies, the pioneering surgeon who rebuilt the faces of the First World War’s injured heroes, and in the process ushered in the modern era of plastic surgery.
From the moment the first machine gun rang out over the Western Front, one thing was clear: mankind’s military technology had wildly surpassed its medical capabilities. The war caused carnage on an industrial scale - amongst that were thousands of men left with devastating facial injuries.
At a time when losing a limb made a soldier a hero but losing a face made him ostracised in a society largely intolerant of facial differences, Gillies established one of the world’s first hospitals dedicated entirely to facial reconstruction.
Gillies’ story tells of how he restored not just faces, but identities, spirits, and lives.
Join Lindsey Fitzharris for a poignant account of the soldiers whose lives were wrecked and repaired thanks to Gillies’s ingenious surgical innovations and what his courage and imagination accomplished.
This In Conversation event will be followed by a live audience Q&A.
Lindsey Fitzharris is the author of The Butchering Art, which won the PEN/E.O. Wilson Prize for Literary Science Writing, and was shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize and the Wolfson History Prize. She received her doctorate in the History of Science, Medicine and Technology at the University of Oxford and was a post-doctoral research fellow at the Wellcome Institute. She contributes regularly to the Wall Street Journal, Scientific American and other notable publications.
Find Lindsey on Instagram @drlindseyfitzharris and Twitter @DrLindseyFitz
What’s Online is a series of talks, in conversation events and webinars delivered by our experts and special guests. Events last approximately one hour, including an audience Q&A.
This event will be presented on Microsoft Teams. You do not need a Teams account to join an event, and can select the Join anonymously option to join from your browser if preferred. If you are accessing the event from a mobile device, you will need to download the Teams app. For the best experience we recommend using either a laptop or desktop computer.
You will receive a reminder email, including a link to join in advance of the event. For more information on attending a Teams event, please visit: https://bit.ly/3hWNWwn
(Image credit: Stuart Simpson/Penguin Random House)
Google
Yahoo
Outlook
ical
