Scanty Particulars: The life of Dr James Barry by Rachel Holmes, Viking, £14.99, ISBN 0670890995
JAMES BARRY seems to have appeared by magic in Edinburgh in 1810—which is fitting, given the newspaper scandal that followed his death in 1865. At any rate, no record of his early years has appeared.
Rachel Holmes, in her lively, witty and welcome biography, introduces him as a medical student at the University, a strange figure, short in stature, squeaky of voice and different from his rowdy contemporaries.
He qualified as a surgeon with distinction and joined the army. His first posting was to…
