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The Facemaker

One Surgeon's Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I

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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

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, and the nature of trench warfare meant that thousands sustained facial injuries. In The Facemaker, award-winning historian Lindsey Fitzharris tells the true story of the pioneering plastic surgeon Harold Gillies, who dedicated himself to restoring the faces of a brutalized generation.

Gillies, a Cambridge-educated New Zealander, established one of the world's first hospitals dedicated entirely to facial reconstruction. At a time when losing a limb made a soldier a hero but losing a face made him a monster to a society largely intolerant of facial differences, Gillies restored not just faces, but identities and spirits.

The Facemaker places Gillies's ingenious surgical innovations alongside the dramatic stories of soldiers whose lives were wrecked and repaired. The result is a vivid account of how medicine and art can merge, and of what courage and imagination can accomplish in the presence of relentless horror.

© Lindsey Fitzharris 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

 Europe Great Britain History History & Commentary History & Philosophy Medicine & Health Care Industry Military Science Surgery War Inspiring Heartfelt Thought-Provoking Medicine Solider

Critic reviews

In this fascinating book, Fitzharris reminds us there is nothing superficial about plastic surgery's ability to heal minds as well as bodies. Five stars (Kathryn Hughes)
Scholarly yet deeply moving... This is a fascinating book about a remarkable man, and of how teamwork is such an important part of good surgery. Despite the grim subject matter, it is a deeply moving and uplifting story (Henry Marsh)
Careful... sensitive... [Fitzharris] has successfully pieced together the story of a team of doctors, hospital workers and patients "battling" together during the First World War to modernize reconstructive plastic surgery... Fitzharris constructs a variegated and tender account of the First World War, its brutality and its narratives of human redemption... Tenderness and pathos pervade the personal stories of surgery and recovery, as well as Fitzharris's engagement with the ethics of facial difference and display (Christine Slobogin)
The Facemaker is an engaging biography of a masterful surgeon as well as a heartening account of medical progress
Meticulously researched... Five stars (Catharine Arnold)
Sometimes distressing, sometimes thrilling, The Facemaker had me gripped; it is elegantly written and endlessly fascinating. Employing just the right balance between diligent research and ingenious reanimation, Fitzharris brings to life a neglected slice of medical history, telling both Gillies' story as well as that of many of the men whose faces - and lives - he saved (Lucy Scholes)
Engrossing... Fitzharris presents an intensely moving and hugely enjoyable story about a remarkable medical pioneer and the men he remade (Wendy Moore)
A skilled storyteller, Fitzharris takes the reader back to the front, making them trudge and slide through mud filled with missing limbs to find the people who stagger into Gillies's casebooks... Properly contextualised, these faces become not objects of horror or surgery, as they have been all too often used, but pathways into understanding what it is to lose a face, and with it, not only the ability to eat, drink and breathe, but also social acceptance and love (Fay Bound Alberti)
With rich, glossy strokes The Facemaker restores a sense of immediacy to the daily struggles facing Gillies and his colleagues as they improvised under constant pressure (James Riding)
Out of war's most awful wounds, out of gore and terror and pain, Lindsey Fitzharris has - like Sir Harold Gillies himself - crafted something inspiring and downright miraculous. I cannot imagine the sweat and sleuthing and doggedness that went into gathering the details and building the narratives of these men's struggles. This book is riveting. It is gruesome but it is also uplifting. For as much as there is blood and bone and pus in these pages, there is heart. As Fitzharris shows us, the scalpel is mightier than the grenade, and the pen is mightiest of all. What a triumph this book is (Mary Roach)
All stars
Most relevant
Fantastic and moving book by Fitzharris, Hugely well researched and brilliantly described. Query re the narrator though. This is the story of a New Zealand surgeon working in Britain, so I'm no sure why a US narrator has been used, whose pronunciation of various French, Latin, Italian and German phrases is also a bit wobbly. A kiwi narrator would have been better...maybe Sam Neill?

Great book, less sure about the narration

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A truly wonderful history of plastic surgery. The Facemakers of WWI have long been of interest to me as their work under such conditions was truly remarkable. So when I saw that Lindsey Fitzharris (who wrote a fantastic book on Joseph Lister and his development of antiseptic techniques), I knew I just had to read it.

This book is brilliant. It doesn't shy away from the horrors of the battlefield; the descriptions of the injuries suffered are detailed but sensitively portrayed to give you that sense of awe when Howard Gillies and his team manage to give them back their lives. Stories of successes and failures show just how much development was made in this field in such a short time. The author discusses the work of others in the field and how they interacted - sometimes with benefits and others not.

I listened to the Audible narration of this book, fantastically narrated by Gillies' great-great-great-grandson, Daniel. I can highly recommend the audiobook as the narration is spot on and a PDF of the images included in the book are also available.

I genuinely enjoyed this book, the way it takes you from the horrors suffered by the patients but then gives you the joy that they were restored and given back their lives. A truly wonderful account of this branch of surgery and this period of history.

Fantastic

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A fascinating subject, singing the praises of an incredible man. Extremely well written and a pleasure to listen to. Highly recommend.

Fantastic Book

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I was drawn to this book by the intriguing subject. We know that War kills and maims but the subject of disfigurement is also ever present. The thought of being altered from the accepted norm of society must be an enduring traumatic torture. Therefore the content of this book is both horrifying and yet inspirational. Depicting the brutality of war against the compassion and skill of dedicated reconstructive surgeons this book is a must.
Being expertly narrated by Daniel Gillies naively I had assumed ‘Lindsay’ to be a male author but upon completion I was surprised to note that such a subject was researched and created by ‘Lindsey’ a female author. This is my first introduction to Lindsey Fitzharris but it is certainly not my last as the content, flow and expression is masterful and consequently I shall certainly seek out further books by this author.

A Masterful Work

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An completely absorbing, fascinating listen. Glad I have learnt about Harold Gillies (and others) pioneering work. Really lovely to have a descendant of Harold Gillies wonderful reading of this amazing book. Definitely worth a credit! *****+

Fascinating....An exceptional listen!

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