10-26 May
Become a FriendThe Money, Medicine, and Mysteries of Blood
with Rose George
Why is blood such a taboo subject? In Nine Pints, Guardian journalist and acclaimed writer Rose George begins by donating to the NHS Blood and Transport Service. From there, she spans science and politics, storytelling and global epidemics to tell an astonishing account of this life-giving substance.
‘Among the best nonfiction books of this century’ Dwight Garner, The New York Times on The Big Necessity
Important information
Duration: c. 1 hour
Rose George
Rose George is the author of A Life Removed: Hunting for Refuge in the Modern World (long-listed for the Ulysses Reportage Prize), The Big Necessity: Adventures in the World of Human Waste (Portobello, 2008; shortlisted for the BMA Book Prize) and Deep Sea and Foreign Going: Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry that Brings You 90% of Everything (Portobello, 2013; winner of a Mountbatten Maritime Award), and Nine Pints: A Journey Through the Mysterious, Miraculous World of Blood (Portobello, 2018). Rose writes frequently for the Guardian, New Statesman and many other publications, and her two TED talks, on sanitation and seafaring, have had 3 million views.
Nine Pints: A Journey Through the Money, Medicine, and Mysteries of Blood
Rose George, author of The Big Necessity, is renowned for her intrepid work on topics that are invisible but vitally important. In Nine Pints, she takes us from ancient practices of bloodletting to the breakthough of the “liquid biopsy,” which promises to diagnose cancer and other diseases with a simple blood test. She introduces Janet Vaughan, who set up the world’s first system of mass blood donation during the Blitz, and Arunachalam Muruganantham, known as “Menstrual Man” for his work on sanitary pads for developing countries. She probes the lucrative business of plasma transfusions, in which the US is known as the “OPEC of plasma.” And she looks to the future, as researchers seek to bring synthetic blood to a hospital near you.
Spanning science and politics, stories and global epidemics, Nine Pints reveals our life’s blood in an entirely new light.
Tickets
Book four or more events at the City of Literature Weekend and save £1.50 per ticket. (Excludes Workshop: Postcard Stories with Jan Carson on Saturday 25 May)
Select a performance
Sunday
26 May
10:00 am
£0.00
In partnership with National Centre for Writing.
