Published: 25/10/2018
ISBN: 9781846276132
Granta Books
384 pages

Nine Pints

Rose George

Most humans contain between nine and twelve pints of blood. Here Rose George, who probably contains nine pints, tells nine different stories about the liquid that sustains us, discovering what it reveals about who we are. In Nepal, she meets girls challenging the taboos surrounding menstruation; in the Canadian prairies, she visits a controversial plasma clinic; in Wales she gets a tour of the UK’s only leech farm to learn about the vital role the creatures still play in modern surgery; and in a London hospital she accompanies a medical team revolutionising the way we treat trauma.

Nine Pints reveals the richness and wonder of the potent red fluid that courses around our bodies, unseen but miraculous.

Astonishing... This absorbing, vital book...is a wonder in its own right

Sarah Ditum, Guardian

George [...] as a journalist, not a doctor, has an even keener eye for the [body's] social and political qualities... George's nine chapters demonstrate that blood is a living tissue which defies our attempts to make it stand still

Kate Womersley, Spectator

[Nine Pints] is not only brave but also powerfully feminist. Fierce and forensic... what it exposes is strangely beautiful

Sunday Times

The Author

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. http://rosegeorge.com/site/

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