Past Mortems cover art

Past Mortems

Life and death behind mortuary doors

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Past Mortems

By: Carla Valentine
Narrated by: Imogen Church
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About this listen

A day in the life of Carla Valentine - curator, pathology technician and 'death professional' - is not your average day. She spent 10 years training and working as an Anatomical Pathology Technologist: where the mortuary slab was her desk and that day's corpses her task list.

Past Mortems tells Carla's stories of those years and investigates the body alongside our attitudes towards death - shedding light on what the living can learn from the dead and the toll the work can take on the living souls who carry it out. Fascinating and insightful, Past Mortems reveals the truth about what happens when the mortuary doors swing shut or the lid of the coffin closes.

2018, Gold Dagger For Non-Fiction, Long-listed

©2017 Carla Valentine (P)2017 Little Brown Physics Science Women

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Most relevant  
Knowing Carla, my opinion may be slightly biased, but I would say this is a thoroughly interesting read. For the many of us who don't work in the death profession this book gives us an entertaining insight into a world we would otherwise never consider.

Very interesting read

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I really enjoyed past mortems as it was a very honestly about a topic most people shy away from. Beautifully written with an open, frank look at the work people do in the mortuary. It may sound off putting but in reality it opens people's eyes to the truth about death and the causes of death. The effect of had on her life and the choices she made during difficult times.

A book that was hard to put down.

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Honestly couldn’t recommend this book anymore!

I’ll deffo be reading it again in the future

Absolutely fantastic

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I loved every second of this book. As someone who also has wanted to work with the dead it was a brilliant onsite into a world not a lot of people know about or want to.

Fascinating and entertaining

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I started this book with an open mind as it seemed to have quite mixed reviews.
Unfortunately im going to have to side with the reviewers that didnt enjoy the narration.
I found it annoying with all the put on accents and just the general tone of it all.
The actual was.... ok..... but i felt talked down to at times.

Narrator was hard to listen to

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Amazing and well told insight in to an amazing life of working with the dead.
Lots of historical and scientific information on death and its various processes told in an easy to understand way. Puts straight many misconceptions of death and mortuarys.
Narrator is great and easy to listen to.

Interesting, heartfelt, and funny

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my favourite book of all time! the performance is so well done. i really hope we hear more from carla valentine :)

one of the best ive listened to and read!

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This book is so good. Very entertaining and easy to listen to. Full of humour but also emotion and very interesting and informative.

Don’t hesitate to buy it! Carla has such an engaging way of writing you will love it I promise!

So good- funny, informative and also heart felt.

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An interesting behind the scenes look at life in a mortuary. This book tells the stories, warts and all, about the years that Carla Valentine spent as an Anatomical Pathology Technician. This book may not be for the faint hearted as not much is left to the imagination. It is a frank, unflinching look at the processes involved in a post mortem but there is also humour and raw emotion. Nevertheless I found it absolutely fascinating and will look up Carla's previous books.

I enjoyed the narration by Imogen Church.

Informative

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A very detailed book with many interesting aspects and memorable moments. There is a good amount of information within this book to learn and whilst working at a mortuary during my time of reading, I found myself picking up knowledge from this book. Its easy to listen to and i took away a lot. Carla is clearly extremely knowledgeable about her line of work and shows great passion in educating others.

Lovely to listen to!

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