Did you know that Albert Einstein’s brain was pickled by scientists, or that Henry V’s body was boiled down like soup, or that Egyptian mummies were often accompanied by their cats, dogs and donkeys?  When Natalie Jane Prior wrote Bog Bodies in 1994, she opened up a fascinating world of mummies and corpses for younger readers.

Now The Encyclopedia of Preserved People covers much of the same ground but in more detail and in a decidedly improved package.  It describes how and why bodies have been preserved over centuries, some even thousands of years.  There are dried mummies from the Pyramids, frozen hunters from the Ice Ages, swamp sacrifices tanned into leather, shrunken heads as trophies, all with weird and wonderful stories to be told.

It is not only the ancient and tribal societies that preserved their dead.  In 1805, Admiral Nelson’s body was pickled in rum to be able to be taken back to England for his state funeral (British sailors then began referring to having a tot of rum as "tapping the Admiral"!).  A few years later, philosopher Jeremy Bentham left orders for his body to be dissected, then stuffed and put on display.  For many years it was brought out to attend the council meetings of University College, London!

There is an amazing amount of detail packed into this 64 page paperback.  Plenty of photos and drawings support the various sections, along with explanations of both the deliberate processes and the natural conditions that created the preserved people.

But its strength is more than just its intriguing stories.  It brings you face to face with the real people of history – people with faces and hair and clothes and tattoos.  People who actually lived hundreds and thousands of years ago can be seen as real everyday folk, sometimes happy, sometimes sad, caught in their own tragedies and triumphs.

This is a must for every school library and the perfect present for any child with an enquiring mind.  But if they start laying in supplies of bitumen, natron, resin and lots of bandages, keep a careful eye on them … and the cat!

Review by David Beagley

© 2002 David Beagley