The Scanty Particulars

A biography of the enigmatic Doctor James Miranda Barry, who performed the worlds first successful recorded caesarean section. Posted by the army as staff surgeon, Barry spent much of his career traversing the globe and eventually reaching the highest rank of Inspector General of hospitals. But throughout his career, Barry courted controversy - through his flamboyant dress, his dalliances with society women and his strange and enduringly intimate friendship with Lord Charles Somerset, Governor of South Africa. The mystery surrounding Barry climaxed after his death, when the servant who laid out his body made a most surprising revelation. This is the deeply personal tale of an very public person whose life unfolds amidst constant drama, a world of medical innovation and colonial adventure. A story at whose centre stands a remarkable individual whose lifetime of mystery is irresistibly alluring.