Rest in Pieces: The curious fates of famous corpses by Bess Lovejoy

IN THE LONG RUN, WE’RE ALL DEAD.

But for some of the most influential figures in history, death marked the start of a new adventure.

The famous deceased have been stolen, burned, sold, pickled, frozen, stuffed, impersonated and even filed away in a lawyer's office. Their fingers, teeth, toes, arms, legs, skulls, hearts, lungs and nether regions have embarked on voyages that criss-cross the globe and stretch the imagination.

Counterfeiters tried to steal Lincoln's corpse. Einstein's brain went on a cross-country road trip. And after Lord Horatio Nelson perished at Trafalgar, his sailors submerged him in brandy – which they drank. From Mozart to Hitler, Rest in Pieces connects the lives of the famous dead to the hilarious and horrifying adventures of their corpses and traces the evolution of cultural attitudes towards death.

**Praise for Rest In Pieces**

A historically beguiling, stranger-than-fiction compendium.'
ELLE

’This wildly entertaining account proves that the fate of the grisly relics tells us a huge amount about history - and ourselves.'
TONY PERROTTET, author of Napoleon’s Privates

Paperback
Publisher: Duckworth 
Number of pages: 385
ISBN: 9780715654132