Gavin Francis is not a traditional traveler. The landscape he explores is human anatomy, his maps are x-rays. “I journey through the body as I listen to my patients’ lungs, manipulate their joints, or gaze in through their pupils,” he writes in his new book, Adventures in Human Being: A Grand Tour From The Cranium to The Calcaneum.

Drawing on medical history and his experience as a doctor, he takes us on an intimate tour of the human body, revealing its complexity, beauty and frailty.

Speaking from his home in Edinburgh, he describes how altruistic organ donor circles in Britain are saving lives; why Javanese women eat their placentas; and how Christian art got it wrong about the crucifixion.

I was one