Eat Me (Wellcome Collection)

As a plant based eater, I wanted to get a different perspective on eating flesh, so i thought i'd go back to how humans ate each other to learn about the history of flesh eating. What doesn't initially seem to be a vegan relevant book ends with discussion of 'Mad Cow' disease and related flesh eating disorders, including political and commercial ones. It seems that across time and nature cannibalism is present in various species, although in humans it tended to be ritual or survival cannibalism. Our ability to make ethical changes to stop eating each other as humans, may depend on our ability to produce sufficient food for our species. So changing habits away from animal eating, which is known to deplete and pollute Earth's resources, might just avoid the misery of us eating ourselves again. Fascinating, easily readable and well researched. I promise never again to eat meat ... or you

A fascinating study of cannibalism - not in the least bit lurid.From the animal kingdom to human beings, the author carefully covers everything on the subject, including, spider self-sacrifice, the American pioneers, Mad Cow disease and the spread of Ebola.Not that I do either, but I had never considered whether biting your nails and eating your nose pickings constituted a form of cannibalism, but he does – and this book has left me certainly wider read and more observant of life.An enjoyable read - even for the squeamish.

This book is written in an accessible and sometimes drily humorous style. It is wide-ranging and addresses topics one wouldn't necessarily have regarded as cannibalism, such as the eating of placentas. The chapter on BSE exposes the revolting practices of the meat industry and the government's habit of putting profits above people's (and, needless to say, animals') health and wellbeing.Eye-opening, thought-provoking and highly recommended.

A broad, balanced, scientific overview of cannibalism - both in the natural world and in humans. Very informative without being gruesome. Covers a lot of theory as to why cannibalism occurs. The historical connotations of being labelled as 'cannibals' and the link to slavery was a particularly interesting point.

Quite informative but not much of a page turner.

Wow - what an interesting resume of a 'difficult' topic.Go for it.