THE PUZZLE OF A PERSON

Forensic anthropologist Prof Dame Sue Black talks to Amy Barrettabout what it’s like to dissect a human body, how a single bone can tell a whole story, and the ways in which we can identify perpetrators from the backs of their hands

- Prof Dame Sue Black

WHAT WAS IT LIKE, THE FIRST TIME YOU WORKED WITH HUMAN REMAINS?

The first time I worked with human remains was in the dissecting room in Aberdeen University. I would have been 18 or 19 at the time. You walked into this room, a huge room that was almost like a conservatory because it had a glass ceiling and opaque glass windows all the way around. It had the most beautiful parquet flooring. It was a really strange room.

There were around 50 metal tables, on top of each was obviously a body, each one covered in a white cotton sheet. So, when you walked into the room, all you saw were these white mounds in rows and lines along with the room. The next thing you do is you take off the white sheet and you’re faced with the dead. You have to touch them, and you feel really embarrassed about touching. This is somebody else’s body, who’s dead.

Then they expect you to put a blade onto a scalpel handle. And no one tells you how to do that. You always end up slicing your fingers. And then you have to make that first cut. It’s something you never forget. It’s a Rubicon that you can only cross once.

CAN YOU TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOUR NEW BOOK, WRITTEN IN BONE?