THE REMARKABLE LIFE OF THE SKIN

AN INTIMATE JOURNEY ACROSS OUR SURFACE

The skin is apparently an organ (who knew?), weighing, as Melanie Reid told us in the Times, 9kg and covering 2sq m. James Mcconnachie, writing in the Sunday Times, was enthralled by the book’s ‘icky bits’; you might not want to know, for example, about the ‘male demodex mites that crawl out of your eyelashes at night and swim about on your face looking for a female to mate with’.

Junior hospital doctor Monty Lyman is a ‘talented new writer’, Mcconnachie concluded, ‘excited by cutting-edge medical research’ while offering practical advice (don’t waste your money on anti-ageing creams and keep away from baby wipes). Mcconnachie passed on some fascinating titbits such as that ‘without our skin we would evaporate’ and that burns victims who lose theirs ‘need more than 20 litres of water a day just to stay alive’.

Reid learned that one way of looking good is to ‘eat colourful foods high in carotenoids — carrots, tomatoes and peppers — which make your skin take on a golden glow’. ‘As someone deprived of most skin sensation by paralysis, I read his chapters on the mechanics and magic of touch with great wistfulness,’ she went on, discovering that, ‘A woman’s touch can prompt a man to take more risks, a waitress who touches a customer’s arm gets a 20 per cent bigger tip and tennis doubles players who fist-bump between points may be more successful than those who don’t.’ Above all, Reid found that ‘skin is an intensely social thing. By blushing, shivering or sweating, we open a window into our mind.’ She concluded neatly that, ‘If skin is the house that contains us, then within this clever, optimistic book there are many floors.’