All That Remains: A Life in Death - Softcover

"One might expect [this book] to be a grim read but it absolutely isn’t. I found it invigorating!" (Andrew Marr BBC Radio 4 'Start the Week')

"Black’s utterly gripping account of her life and career as a professor of anatomy and forensic anthropology manages to be surprisingly life-affirming. As she herself says, it is “as much about life as about death”." (PD Smith Guardian)

"An engrossing memoir ... an affecting mix of the personal and professional." (Erica Wagner Financial Times)

"A model of how to write about the effect of human evil without losing either objectivity or sensitivity ... Heartening and anything but morbid... Leaves you thinking about what kind of human qualities you value, what kinds of people you actually want to be with." (Rowan Williams New Statesman)

"For someone whose job is identifying corpses, Sue Black is a cheerful soul ... All That Remains feels like every episode of Silent Witness, pre-fictionalized. Except, you know, really good." (Helen Rumbelow The Times)

Professor Dame Sue Black discusses the subject she grapples with every day - Death - bringing her unique perspective to the multitudinous circumstances in which life is lost. From the painful grieving process after losing a loved one, to violence, murder, criminal dismemberment, missing persons, war (such as Kosovo), natural disasters (such as a tsunami), unidentified bodies, historical remains -- involving investigative agencies, lawyers, justice, criminal sentences, and always sadness and pain, she takes us on a scientific and reflective journey explaining the genetic DNA traits that develop before our birth, and those traits and features we gather in the twists and turns through life, all of which add up to an identity that reveals itself in death.
Riveting as the best crime novel, and leavened with humour, this is an enriching and reassuring read and a parallel celebration of life.