With a death toll of between 50 and 100 million people and a global reach, the Spanish flu of 1918–1920 was the greatest human disaster, not only of the twentieth century, but possibly in all of recorded history. And yet, in our popular conception it exists largely as a footnote to World War I. In Pale Rider, Laura Spinney recounts the story of an overlooked pandemic, tracing it from Alaska to Brazil, from Persia to Spain, and from South Africa to Odessa. She shows how the pandemic was shaped by the interaction of a virus and the humans it encountered; and how this devastating natural experiment put both the ingenuity and the vulnerability of humans to the test.
Laura Spinney demonstrates that the Spanish flu was as significant – if not more so – as the two world wars in shaping the modern world; in disrupting, and often permanently altering, global politics, race relations, family structures, and thinking across medicine, religion and the arts.
This event is only available as part of the Folkestone Book Festival Digital Pass. By booking a Digital Pass you'll be able to access all the talks and events and revisit anything you missed for up to a week after the festival.
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Laura Spinney is a science journalist and a literary novelist. She is the author of two novels and her writing on science has appeared in National Geographic, Nature, The Economist and The Observer amongst others. Born in the UK, she has also lived in France and Switzerland.
Both a saga of tragedies and a detective story... Pale Rider is not just an excavation but a reimagining of the past.
- The Guardian
This event will be chaired by Julia Wheeler.
This year the Festival will be presented online and in person wherever possible and in line with the latest government guidance. You can find more information about the Festival here.
This event is a Folkestone Book Festival screened event at Quarterhouse. Speakers will be streamed live from their homes to our auditorium for a limited audience. All events can also be enjoyed online as part of our Digital Pass.
Creative Folkestone Book Festival is made possible thanks to the generous support of our funders and partners. We are proud to welcome the return of NewsNow as our Principal Partner for the Creative Folkestone Book Festival.
