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ABOUT THIS BOOK

PUBLISHER: Black & White Publishing

ISBN: 9781785307539

RRP: £9.99

PAGES: 288

PUBLICATION DATE:
July 31, 2025

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The Specimens

Inside the grand walls of Edinburgh’s nineteenth-century scientific institutions, anatomists began to map the secrets of the human body in order to discover new medical innovations.

But to the horror of the local population, a shortage of bodies soon led to the gruesome act of graveyard bodysnatching, a heartless crime that would soon spread like a disease throughout the city. And when stealing cadavers turns to murder, Burke & Hare became two of the most notorious serial killers of their time.

This is the story of those grim events, told for the first time through the eyes of Susan and Helen (Nelly), two women caught up in those horrific matters.

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Mairi Kidd

MAIRI KIDD is the author of We are All Witches, Warriors and Witches and Damn Rebel Bitches and Feisty and Fiery and Fierce, as well as a number of books for children, and drama for TV, radio and stage. She has a passion for exploring untold stories, and particularly women’s lives in history.

Mairi is Director of the Saltire Society and has been Head of Literature at Creative Scotland and CEO of Seven Stories the National Centre for Children’s Books. She has also been a publisher working to open up the written word to children and young people with dyslexia, when she had the honour of publishing household names including Julia Donaldson, Michael Morpurgo, Michael Rosen and Quentin Blake.

Mairi is a Gaelic speaker and regularly appears on TV and radio discussing books. She lives in Portobello with her husband Tom, an illustrator, and their very handsome cat.