We have a fascination for medical drama and reality TV shows.  Cameras in Casualty or operating theatres give us a first-hand view of the delicate, sometimes desperate and dangerous work of the surgeons and nurses. But, despite their many successes, it was not always like this.

Fleshmarket is a fascinating story set nearly two centuries ago when medicine was just learning how bodies work, before anaesthetics, before sterilization, even before proper hospitals and nursing.

It is based around the true story of an Edinburgh surgeon, Robert Knox and his dealings with two body-snatchers, Burke and Hare.  He wanted bodies to explore anatomy; they stole from graves and even murdered to get them for him.

Through the eyes of a desperately poor boy, Robbie, whose mother had died after surgery by Knox, we confront the question of whether Knox’s great work improving modern surgery was worth the terrible, illegal trade in bodies.

Robbie wants to destroy Knox because he is haunted by his mother’s terrible death and the poverty it caused for his family.  He joins Burke and Hare as they smuggle bodies from graves and public hangings to Knox’s Infirmary, but when he finds them murdering a tramp, he must make his own moral choice and confront Knox.

Fleshmarket is often bleak and depressing, especially in its description of life in the Edinburgh slums, but it is also fast-paced and driven by the emotion and character of Robbie.  Nicola Morgan does not preach or try to tidy up parts of the true story – Robbie must learn from his own experience what he can choose and what he must accept.

In the end, we are left with the same question he faces – how far should science go to improve our lives?

Review by David Beagley

© 2004 David Beagley