Unburied

Reviews / Votes

'Part intriguing detective story, part chilling description of the cavalier treatment of human remains in nineteenth-century England, Hannah Priest's Unburied investigates the difference between fact and fiction, uncovering a truth stranger and more complex than 200 years of Gothic razamatazz. Thoroughly researched and engagingly told, here is a story hidden from history, of "an ordinary woman who made an extraordinary decision about her own body".'
Rosie Garland, author of The Palace of Curiosities

'A meticulously researched examination of both the truth and fictions of the "Manchester Mummy". Rich in detail, Hannah Priest's account provides an unflinching examination of a very strange corpse that is perhaps not so strange at all - at least not for the reasons we might think.'
Bess Lovejoy, author of Rest in Pieces: The Curious Fates of Famous Corpses

'A long overdue study of a Mancunian woman and her bizarre afterlife. Priest provides absolutely fascinating insights into eighteenth-century Manchester, its treatment of women and the dead, and our persistently morbid curiosity.'
Campbell Price, Curator of Egypt and Sudan, Manchester Museum

'Hannah Beswick has finally found her amanuensis. In Unburied, the extraordinary story of her mummified body is told at last.'
Viktor Wynd, author of The Unnatural History Museum

'In Unburied, Hannah Priest seeks to uncover the truth behind Beswick's story and in doing so contributes to histories of the body, museums, and death and dying - as well as the history of folklore... the reader is encouraged to ponder the human experiences of historical actors, the temporality of burial, and quite why stories like Beswick's continue to fascinate us in the modern day.'
4 stars from Jennifer Wallis, Fortean Times -- .