Shapeshifters: on medicine & human change

Our minds and bodies change constantly - we dream and laugh, wax and wane, distort and repair, grow taller and shrink, flourish and decay as we make our way through life.

Some of these changes we have little choice about - we can't avoid puberty, the menopause, or even death.

Others are specific to the individual, inhabiting that strange hinterland between mind and body, imposed by the savage perfectionism of anorexia or the internal pressures of plastic surgery addicts. And still others are rare, almost magical in their manifestations, such as the sun-sensitivity and facial hair that characterises Porphyria suffers and led to them, once upon a time, to be suspected as werewolves.

Mixing case studies with observations about history, art, literature, myth and magic, Gavin Francis explores the various ways in which change is the very essence of being human.