Headfirst Editor's Pick
"Two authors confront the politics of death and disease in a double book launch. Oliver Basciano’s Outcast traces leprosy’s history of exile and resilience across continents; Molly Conisbee’s No Ordinary Deaths is a social history of mortality told through the overlooked rituals, labour, and grief of ordinary lives."
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A event held at Bookhaus on Wednesday 2nd July. The event starts at 18:00.
We have an unusual event to launch and discuss two new books on the human body, disease and death, and their meaning in culture and society. We will be joined by Oliver Basciano, launching his book Outcast: A History of Leprosy, Humanity and the Modern World (WINNER OF THE 2023 RSL GILES ST AUBYN AWARD), and by Molly Conisbee, who will be launching her book No Ordinary Deaths: A People's History of Mortality.
Outcast by Oliver Basciano - The story of leprosy is the story of humanity.
It is a story of isolation and exclusion, of resilience and resistance, one which has permeated global cultures in myriad ways for thousands of years, dividing the world into the ‘clean’ and the ‘unclean’. Despite the forced segregation of patients ending in the 1980s, the disease still retains a dark reputation to this day.
Oliver Basciano’s journey to demystify leprosy takes him from the Romanian border, the hinterlands of Brazil and the fringes of Siberia to the Japanese archipelago, Robben Island and the northern settlements of Mozambique. It reveals the image of mediaeval leprosy to be a nineteenth-century myth invented to justify gross mistreatment of patients, a blueprint used for further state-sanctioned stigma: colonialism, racism, religious and economic exploitation.
Basciano meets those living with leprosy today, those exiled to various leprosaria around the world and forced to find homes away from home; he hears stories of community and perseverance in the face of grave circumstances, of lives bound to each other through shared experience and how they have refused to be cast aside.
Outcast is a kaleidoscopic work of outstanding empathy and compassion, written by a remarkable new literary talent. In casting light on the human condition in the modern world, it asks: does a society’s sense of itself always rely on ostracisation?
No Ordinary Deaths by Molly Conisbee - A vibrant, compelling social history of death, dying, and how our ends shape our lives and societies
History is dominated by A-list deaths: queens beheaded; archdukes assassinated. But what about everyone else? How did ordinary people depart this life and grieve for loved ones - and which of the old ways might help us prepare for the end?
Our ancestors, living closer to death than we do, had a more intimate and integrated relationship with death as a familiar presence in daily life. From the death-watchers of the Middle Ages to the pomp of Victorian funeral wear, by way of plague pits, grave-robberies and wakes, historian and bereavement counsellor Molly Conisbee explores how cycles of dying, death and disposal have shaped - and been shaped by - society. She examines, through the prism of past deaths, their interweaving with our beliefs and politics, our most fervent hopes and deepest fears and, ultimately, what it means to 'die well'.
A groundbreaking new work of social history, No Ordinary Deaths paints a rich picture of the lives of our forebears, skilfully bringing the lost art of death to life today.
Both authors will be here at bookhaus to discuss these books. Tickets cost £6 and include a glass of wine or a soft drink and £2 off each book. Presented by bookhaus.
Entry requirements: no age restrictions
Outcast by Oliver Basciano - The story of leprosy is the story of humanity.
It is a story of isolation and exclusion, of resilience and resistance, one which has permeated global cultures in myriad ways for thousands of years, dividing the world into the ‘clean’ and the ‘unclean’. Despite the forced segregation of patients ending in the 1980s, the disease still retains a dark reputation to this day.
Oliver Basciano’s journey to demystify leprosy takes him from the Romanian border, the hinterlands of Brazil and the fringes of Siberia to the Japanese archipelago, Robben Island and the northern settlements of Mozambique. It reveals the image of mediaeval leprosy to be a nineteenth-century myth invented to justify gross mistreatment of patients, a blueprint used for further state-sanctioned stigma: colonialism, racism, religious and economic exploitation.
Basciano meets those living with leprosy today, those exiled to various leprosaria around the world and forced to find homes away from home; he hears stories of community and perseverance in the face of grave circumstances, of lives bound to each other through shared experience and how they have refused to be cast aside.
Outcast is a kaleidoscopic work of outstanding empathy and compassion, written by a remarkable new literary talent. In casting light on the human condition in the modern world, it asks: does a society’s sense of itself always rely on ostracisation?
No Ordinary Deaths by Molly Conisbee - A vibrant, compelling social history of death, dying, and how our ends shape our lives and societies
History is dominated by A-list deaths: queens beheaded; archdukes assassinated. But what about everyone else? How did ordinary people depart this life and grieve for loved ones - and which of the old ways might help us prepare for the end?
Our ancestors, living closer to death than we do, had a more intimate and integrated relationship with death as a familiar presence in daily life. From the death-watchers of the Middle Ages to the pomp of Victorian funeral wear, by way of plague pits, grave-robberies and wakes, historian and bereavement counsellor Molly Conisbee explores how cycles of dying, death and disposal have shaped - and been shaped by - society. She examines, through the prism of past deaths, their interweaving with our beliefs and politics, our most fervent hopes and deepest fears and, ultimately, what it means to 'die well'.
A groundbreaking new work of social history, No Ordinary Deaths paints a rich picture of the lives of our forebears, skilfully bringing the lost art of death to life today.
Both authors will be here at bookhaus to discuss these books. Tickets cost £6 and include a glass of wine or a soft drink and £2 off each book. Presented by bookhaus.
Entry requirements: no age restrictions
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