Synopsis: The Anatomists’ Handbook.

London, 1856. Three anatomist artists are vying for the chance to illustrate the proposed ‘Anatomy’ being written by Dr Henry Gray.
– Henry Vandyke Carter – a dissector, an artist, and the son of an artist;
– George Adams, a skilled dissector and artist who has great difficulty drawing hands, and
– Charles Breckinridge, the son of a Lord, and medical student of Gray.

The men all dissect and illustrate at Henry Gray’s Kinnerton Street Anatomy School.
The book opens with the judicial hanging of one of the three anatomists for the murder and dissection of a local widow who is found missing her hands. Another dies a lonely death in his studio having learned he has not gained the commission to illustrate the text.
Just before the publication of ‘Gray’s Anatomy’ Gray’s anatomy school is delivered a magnificent portfolio of drawings and paintings of dissected female hands.

Who killed the virtuous widow?
Did the right man hang for her death? Who created the folio of drawings?

Set against the background of St George's Hospital, the Kinnerton Street dissecting school and the grimy streets of Victorian London a group of twenty four young men learn their anatomy and medicine. 

This is a book about hands, ambitions and how we see ourselves.

What's in a name?

Is it true that every autopsy is a sermon?

What is the price of ambition?

Do the ends justify the means?

How do we best use these amazing marvels of engineering at the tips of our arms?