The Lifesavers

The Lifesavers Synopsis

'Bailey brings this story alive . . . riveting' Anne Sebba, Spectator

'Fascinating… [A story] teeming with inspiring and moving tales of real humanity' Nigel Jones, BBC History

In the chaos of global conflict, a high-stakes battle was fought to save lives, not take them.

During the Second World War, a pioneering band of men and women sought to save life on a scale previously thought impossible. Unconventional, iconoclastic, and often under fire, they set out to push and pull blood from hundreds of thousands of donors into the veins of dying battle casualties.

In The Lifesavers, acclaimed historian Roderick Bailey draws on first-hand accounts and deep archival research to uncover their gripping and untold story. At its heart was a remarkable cast of characters, including pre-war GPs, conscientious objectors and a communist doctor who had transfused his first casualties in the Spanish Civil War.

Exploring groundbreaking science and tales of human endurance from Dunkirk and North Africa to the D-Day beaches and the jungles of Burma, this is the inspiring account of a fight to save lives that rewrote the rules of survival.

'A fascinating look behind the scenes at the efforts and innovations made to keep men alive' Al Murray, host of We Have Ways of Making You Talk

'This account by a master historian is fresh and vital, history at its best' Rob Lyman, author of Victory to Defeat