Adventures in Human Being

By: Gavin Francis

Narrated by: Thomas Judd

Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

We have a lifetime's association with our bodies, but for many of us they remain uncharted territory.

In Adventures in Human Being, Gavin Francis leads the listener on a journey through health and illness, offering insights on everything from the ribbed surface of the brain to the secret workings of the heart and the womb; from the pulse of life at the wrist to the unique engineering of the foot.

Drawing on his own experiences as a doctor and GP, he blends firsthand case studies with reflections on the way the body has been imagined and portrayed over the millennia. If the body is a foreign country, then to practise medicine is to explore new territory: Francis leads the listener on an adventure through what it means to be human.

Both a user's guide to the body and a celebration of its elegance, this audiobook will transform the way you think about being alive, whether in sickness or in health.

Gavin Francis is an award-winning writer and doctor and a contributor to The Guardian, The New York Review of Books and London Review of Books.

©2015 Gavin Francis (P)2016 Audible, Ltd

Critic reviews

"A sober and beautiful book about the landscape of the human body: thought-provoking and eloquent." (Hilary Mantel)
"Wonderful, subtle, unpretentious...produces a kind of complicity between the author, the reader, and the subject." (John Berger)

Fantastic listen!

More about the ways in which we've interacted with and discovered our bodies throughout human history than the anatomy itself, but there are modern scientific descriptions as well. The author's passion shines through and the narrator's reading makes it even more enjoyable (it helps that he sounds like Neil Gaiman and does accents well).

If you enjoy history, literature, sociology or a new and well-informed perspective, give this a go!

Informative And Educating In My Leisure Time

The narrator does a superb job. The story is very informative and give me pleasure to know more and more appreciative about my own body. I have to thank the author so immensely for sharing it to us.

Some new info, some old; British accent adds a little

As I have been in the medical field for some forty years, I did not really expect anything terribly new. I did thoroughly enjoy the reader's British accent, especially when there were differences in pronunciation, such as saying 'carcinoma ' with a hard 'c' as in "car-kin-oma. That one pulled me up short!
There were many interesting and personally touching items, such as the original fabrication of a dialysis machine with an orange juice carton, plastic sausage wrappers, and a motor from a Ford truck. I presently have a beloved friend who is on dialysis, so that meant a lot to me.
The history anecdotes were fascinating and worth the book for sure!
A delight, which I will probably revisit from time to time. Highly recommended!!!

Head to Toe Analysis

I listened to this on audible, and the narration was fine. I tend to enjoy nonfiction books more in audio than print format.

This started a little slow for me, but it became more interesting as the book progressed. I wasn't too keen on the literary references and some of the historical information at first, but then it became a bit more interesting. The book was set up in sections starting a the head and ending with the feet. While there wasn't a lot of new medical information, I did learn some things here and there. I did enjoy listening to the case studies and their application to the particular body part under discussion.

There was some humor in the book; I LOL during the rectum discussion when a patient's x-ray was stolen (I won't spoil it, but it is good!!!). I also realized that perhaps I shouldn't be listening to the placenta part during my lunch hour; as I was eating my lunch and listening to the book, the author was discussing cultures where placenta was eaten for various reasons.

Anatomy at it's Clearest!!

Being from the States, I always enjoy hearing readers from Briton.
This is especially true of the subject matter. Both the author with the reader voice were able translate such an incredibly hard subject with such clarity that I am sure that I will listen to this book possibly 2 more times!!
BRAVO!!
Thank You!!

Fascinating

It just ended and I'm going to listen again! Every aspect was amazing. Enjoy!

Be Amazed, at the poem that is the human body!

Extremely rereshing to encounter writing that recalls the practice of medicine and training with fondness and fascination! A good reminder of why we were drawn to medicine in the first place. The beautiful orchestra that occurs daily without our own effort. Allow yourself to be amazed by the human body.

The anecdotes in this writing are entertaining.

The anecdotes in this writing are entertaining. It seems that the author has has had a very interesting medical practice. I had no expectations going into this but after the first chapter I was hooked. I was intrigued by the author's ability to link classical writings to modern medical knowledge and practices. I would recommend this book and I will probably give it another listen at some point.

The reader's voice is pleasant and had a good pace.

Great Book

Great book, but much shorter than I had expected. wish it had been longer. But I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Fun to know about us humans

Nice commentary on being us. Enjoyed it a lot with special interest on the old medical ideas