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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 and fastest growing 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. 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 and reveals how the skin is far stranger and more complex than you've ever imagined.
Dr Monty Lyman travelled the globe to research The Remarkable Life of the Skin, including Africa, South Asia and Australasia. He studied at the universities of Oxford, Birmingham and Imperial College London. He has worked in a world-leading dermatology laboratory, been the national head of undergraduate and junior doctor dermatology in the UK, has won several national prizes in dermatology and medical writing and has given many talks at national conferences. In 2017 he won the Wilfred Thesiger Travel Writing Award for his report on a dermatological research trip to Tanzania. He lives in Oxford, England.
"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."
– The Times
"Lyman peels back the science on human skin in this absorbing, fact-packed study."
– Nature
"An unexpectedly great adventure."
– 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
