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The Remarkable Life of the Skin
The Remarkable Life of the Skin
Jan 12, 2025 7:42 AM

Author:Monty Lyman

The Remarkable Life of the Skin

- Shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize 2019

- A Sunday Times 'MUST READ'

- 'An exciting introduction to a little-known microscopic universe.' Sunday Times

- 'A seriously entertaining book.' Melanie Reid, The Times

- As read on RADIO 4's BOOK OF THE WEEK

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How does our diet affect our skin? What makes the skin age? And why can't we tickle ourselves?

Providing a cover for our delicate and intricate bodies, the skin is our largest, fastest growing and yet least understood organ. We see it, touch it and live in it every day. It's a habitat for a mesmerizingly complex world of micro-organisms and physical functions that are vital to our health and our survival. It's also one of the first things people see about us and is crucial to our sense of identity. Our skin plays a central role in our lives. And yet how much do we really know about it?

Through the lenses of science, sociology and history, Dr Monty Lyman leads us on a journey across our most underrated and unexplored organ. Examining our microbiome, our love of tattoos and whether or not beauty products really work, he reveals how the skin is far stranger and more complex than you've ever imagined.

Reviews

This microsopic look at skin is crawling with revelations, from tiny mites to cellulite and skin care... An exciting introduction to a little-known universe and to a talented new writer.

—— Sunday Times

A seriously entertaining book... Here are things you wish you'd known about the skin years ago... Clever, optimistic.

—— Melanie Reid , The Times

Lyman peels back the science on human skin in this absorbing, fact-packed study.

—— Nature

Beautifully written, revealing and surprising, this is a fascinating guide to the secret life of the skin.

—— Daily Mail

An unexpectedly great adventure.

—— Gillian Reynolds , Sunday Times

Imaginatively told... knowledgeable and enthusiastic.

—— The Spectator

Not since GCSE Biology has my reading material been so scientific. As I approach my late twenties, I've increased my skincare routine tenfold, and now I'm taking it up a notch by learning how our largest organ actually works.The Remarkable Life of the Skin will make you scratch, squirm, inspect and neglect, but what a read it is. If those aforementioned textbooks had been written by the highly entertaining Dr Monty Lyman, I might have paid more attention. Plus, no other Tube read has ever garnered so many double-takes.

—— Vogue

Fascinating ... takes us beneath the surface of our largest and least-known organ.

—— Daily Express

This book's a gem.

—— Irish Examiner

An extraordinary insight into the fascinating world of the skin, explaining how it both protects and connects us... [the book] delves into the science behind the skin’s microbiome and explores the history of anti-aging treatments. A must read for all of those curious about why our skin is the first to show our emotions, and how it has the power to both divide and unite communities around the world.

—— Professor the Lord Darzi of Denham, director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College, London

I cried, laughed and cried again. It’s therapeutic to read and bloody amazing. This book will help to raise awareness and help people understand what it’s like to go through this, to see light at the end of the tunnel and know you won’t always feel like this.

—— Jessie Hunt, postpartum psychosis survivor

I absolutely loved this book. It’s so honest I related to the rawness of it all. There was so much I could identify with.

—— Helen Grimes, postpartum psychosis survivor

An important book and I have no doubt it will have a significant impact.

—— Dr Chi-Chi Obuaya, Psychiatrist

This is a generous, humane, brave gift of a book. Its guts and humour spoke to me loud and clear. I wept for Laura, women I love, and ones I’ve never met, many times throughout. There’s a conspiracy of silence around so many of areas of birth and new motherhood, and Laura is breaking the glass ceiling of it, with glorious honesty, humour and humility. I salute you, Laura - you’re a fucking warrior!

—— Sophie Dahl

A humblingly honest and human war report from the front lines of mothering, psychosis and recovery: there is no other book like it, and it is so desperately needed.

—— Giovanna Fletcher

This moving book was a pleasure to read and I didn't want to put it down. If anyone is going through a similar experience it will make them feel less alone.

—— Philippa Perry

Dockrill's raw yet ultimately hopeful account of her experience with postpartum psychosis shines an important light on a rarely discussed experience.

—— iNews

Bold, brave and raw, it must have taken immense courage to write this phenomenal memoir… It’s a tough read, but hugely inspiring…told with a winning dash of humour, and provides desperately needed insight into postnatal mental health

—— Eithne Farry , UK Press Syndication

What Have I Done? is heartbreaking and brutal in its honesty, and it is remarkable that Dockrill has managed to wring black comedy out of so much suffering… [the book] offer[s] a hand of solidarity to other women, as well as the assurance that there is a way through

—— Stephanie Merritt , Observer

I tore through EXPECTATION at the weekend. Exceptional gorgeously written and reads like a love letter to London. I highly recommend it

—— STACEY HALLS, bestselling author of THE FAMILIARS

I absolutely loved this. What really appealed to me was the depiction of the parents, about legacy and about what the mother's generation leaves for the one that comes after

—— ANNE YOUNGSON

An intimate and touching portrayal of female friendship that shows it's okay to just be

—— NINA POTTELL

So fresh, human, kind and relatable

—— JENNY COLGAN

Such a dark, relatable, elegant take on how time alters female friendships: how we become THESE people and our friends become THOSE people. Anyway, I loved it. You probably will, too

—— LIZA KLAUSSMANN, author of Tigers in Red Weather

A must-read. Will make you want to hug the women in you life

—— FABULOUS MAGAZINE Book of the Year

A deftly crafted hymn to the comfort and frustration of female friendship from one of our most gifted contemporary writers

—— WATERSTONES

Sensual and evocative, deeply attuned to both the inner lives of the protagonists

—— CULTUREFLY

The prose is beautiful, the characters achingly real, their flawed decisions enraging and yet somehow still relatable. This wonderful book will resonate with every woman who reads it

—— LOUISE O'NEILL

A quietly political story that suggests historic battles have left women with new impossible burdens of expectation. A marvellously tangy London novel

—— DAILY MAIL

Hope beautifully examines how female friendship, its issues entirely relatable, ebbs and flows over time in this wise and engaging read

—— SUNDAY EXPRESS

Hugely absorbing, massively enjoyable

—— LISSA EVANS

A deftly crafted hymn to the comfort and frustration of female friendship from one of our most gifted contemporary writers

—— WATERSTONES

Sensitive, resonant, addictive

—— DAILY MIRROR

A story that resonates with anyone who has tried and failed and tried again as they contemplate that gap between what is possible and what is not.

—— RTE GUIDE

Compulsive and beautifully told storytelling - an ode to 21st century London and an examination of the pressures of modern society

—— IRISH TIMES Book of the Year

completely redefines the friendship novel. I am in awe of the way Anna Hope captures what it means to be a woman, right here, right now.

—— RED MAGAZINE Book of the Year

Hope is adept at characterisation. The friends are fantastically well-realised.

—— Daily Times

The story of 3 college friends, if you're a fan of Sally Rooney, you'll love EXPECTATION

—— Irish Examiner

A grown-up, honest take on female camaraderie. Packed with talking points

—— Mail on Sunday

Fantastic. Beautifully written, sharply observed and saying important things

—— ELIZABETH DAY

BOOK OF THE YEAR. It's the book we're all buying for our sisters and besties this Christmas.

—— Fabulous

Brings to vivid life that particular tension one feels just before middle age, when it begins to become clear that life won’t end up looking exactly they way we thought it would. An outstanding novel

—— MARY BETH KEANE

Anna Hope's beautifully observed study of female friendship is a moving account of the collision between aspiration and reality

—— DAILY MAIL

Fantastically well-realised portrait of female friendship's joys and pains from an exciting new voice in British fiction

—— DAILY TELEGRAPH
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