Especially interesting are the context-providing sections on humanity’s millennia-old encounter with flu and on the frantic, flawed, attempts to understand the science behind the outbreak. Colin Grant ― Guardian Spinney’s book provides a masterful account of the possible origins, spread and cultural consequences of this modern-day plague. Julie McDowall ― Herald Spinney, an admired science journalist, conjures the drama of the Spanish flu … Pale Rider is not just an excavation but a reimagining of the past… The renowned virologist John Oxford concurs: “H1N1 has a proven capacity to kill,” he says, “and we don’t need to be sitting here taking it like they did in 1918.” Spinney has ably lent her pen to the cause. This fascinating, frightening book will begin to redress that dangerous historical imbalance. Patricia Fara ― BBC History Magazine Engaging, delivering the necessary science in the tone of a trendy lecturer who is chatty and informal but always authoritative… The post-war world created treaties, organisations and protest groups to prevent global conflict recurring, yet the century’s biggest killer may have been something else entirely. The main fascination of her wonderfully absorbing book lies in its international comparisons, reinforced by harrowing narratives of personal experiences… Pale Rider offers an important if unsettling reminder that stories about epidemics cannot be safely relegated to the past. ― The Economist Laura Spinney provides a vivid account of the medical mysteries surrounding this exceptionally lethal disease and its long-term consequences. Yet most narratives focus on the West… Ms Spinney’s book goes some way to redress the balance. Laura Spinney traces its long shadow over human history … In Europe and North America the first world war killed more than Spanish flu everywhere else the reverse is true. ― Nature Influenza, like all viruses, is a parasite. As the centenary of this monumental event approaches, other volumes on the pandemic will undoubtedly appear. demonstrates how the Spanish flu cast a long shadow over the 20th century. ― Guardian Vividly recreated, grimly fascinating… Coolly, crisply and with a consistently sharp eye for the telling anecdote, Spinney. Pale Rider is not just an excavation but a reimagining of the past. ― Sunday Times Both a saga of tragedies and a detective story.

― The Times Weaves together global history and medical science to great effect. I’ve seldom had so much fun reading about people dying. With superb investigative skill and a delightfully light-hearted writing style, Spinney extends her analysis far beyond the relatively short duration of the plague. In the process she demonstrates that the Spanish flu was as significant – if not more so – as 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.

Drawing on the latest research in history, virology, epidemiology, psychology, and economics, Laura Spinney narrates a catastrophe that changed humanity for decades to come, and continues to make itself felt today.

Telling the story from the point of view of those who lived through it, 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. 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. And yet, in our popular conception it exists largely as a footnote to World War I. 'Magisterial' Observer 'Riveting' Sunday Times 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.

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