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Presenting a history of cannibalism, this text shows how in primitive times, human game was treated just as any other, and both the prophet Muhammed and Richard the Lionheart consumed the bodies of their enemies. Also covered are modern-day cannibals such as Chikatilo and Hannibal Lecter.
A rare print purchase; I've given up waiting for her non-fiction (and her other historical fiction) to be digitised. (She wrote the Earl of Moriston Mysteries under the pen name Annabel Laine.)
A pop science book; Tannahill takes as her theme cannibalism through history, and includes vampirism and lycanthropy as both deal with cannibalistic themes. I thought it a bit disorganised and rather anecdotal in style; she would skitter around both geographically and historically within the same chapter, and also discuss the three themes at once.
Recommended with reservations; it could do with a serious re-edit (which it almost certainly will never get - Tannahill died in 2007).
Please don't combine with "Flesh & Blood" by Michèle Roberts (a novel)
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▾Book descriptions
Presenting a history of cannibalism, this text shows how in primitive times, human game was treated just as any other, and both the prophet Muhammed and Richard the Lionheart consumed the bodies of their enemies. Also covered are modern-day cannibals such as Chikatilo and Hannibal Lecter.
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Book description
In Flesh and Blood, Reay Tannahill explores the age-old practice of cannibalism. the author-of previous studies on eating and sex, she takes us on a fascinating historical tour of this darkest of gastronomic compulsions -- including a section on the recent upsurge in cannibalism-themed horror fiction and a study of serial killer cannibals such as Jeffrey Dahmer.
At the dawn of man, the consumption of human flesh and blood was a legitimate ritual practiced by ancient Babylonians and Aztecs alike. The recent media focus may have brought cannibalism into the public eye, but the practice has never wholly left society and still echoes in religious traditions such as the Christian Eucharist.
Here is a book that is sure to feed into our current fascination with people who eat people.
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1
A pop science book; Tannahill takes as her theme cannibalism through history, and includes vampirism and lycanthropy as both deal with cannibalistic themes. I thought it a bit disorganised and rather anecdotal in style; she would skitter around both geographically and historically within the same chapter, and also discuss the three themes at once.
Recommended with reservations; it could do with a serious re-edit (which it almost certainly will never get - Tannahill died in 2007).