The Language of Bones

Carla Valentine

Every skeleton has a story to tell. Mortician and pathology curator Carla Valentine knows this better than anyone.

As the curator of a pathology museum housing more than 5,000 human specimens, many of them bones and skeletons, she spends her days uncovering the secrets they hold.

In this gripping and accessible exploration, Valentine reveals what our bones can tell us about who we were and how we lived. Each chapter takes her to a different ossuary, from the UK to the Czech Republic, Italy, Austria and France, where she uncovers hidden stories of the dead, from well-known cases to those long forgotten. Through lyrical storytelling, Carla brings these voices from the past back to life in a way that is vivid, human and impossible to forget.

Blending science, history and real-life encounters, she explores the stories we leave behind in our bones, revealing tales that are strange, moving and sometimes unexpectedly funny. Woven through it all is a deeply personal story of loss, bringing a deeply human edge to the story, and revealing what remains long after we are gone.