This Mortal CoilA GUARDIAN, ECONOMIST AND PROSPECT BOOK OF THE YEAR 'A superb book' Simon Sebag Montefiore 'An empowering story of human ingenuity' Economist 'Full of curious facts' The Times Causes of death have changed irrevocably across time. In the course of a few centuries, we have gone from a world where disease or violence was likely to strike anyone at any age, and where famine could be just one bad harvest away, to one where in many countries excess food is