A profound and provocative journey through the human body

'Bold, humane yet unsettling' GUARDIAN

'Gripping and lyrical' TELEGRAPH

For Gabriel Weston, there was always something missing from the anatomy she was taught at medical school. As she became a surgeon, a mother, and ultimately a patient herself, she found herself grappling with the gap between the body she understood as a doctor, and the reality of living in one.

In this captivating exploration of our bodily organs, a fuller and more human picture of our bodies emerges: more fragile, frightening and miraculous than we could have imagined.

'Exceptional, beautiful and absolutely absorbing . . . ALIVE is essential reading if you own a body' CHRIS VAN TULLEKEN

Gabriel Weston was born in 1970. She studied English at Edinburgh University before attending medical school in London and becoming a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 2003. Her Sunday Times bestselling debut, Direct Red, was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and won the PEN-Ackerley Award for Autobiography, while her novel Dirty Work won the McKitterick Prize. The presenter of several BBC TV series, including Trust Me I'm a Doctor and Incredible Medicine: Dr Weston's Casebook, she currently works as a part-time surgeon and lives in London with her husband and children.