Speaking about the unspeakable: Encouraging engagement with taboo topics

Rose George writes about the hidden, secret and underexplored. But how do you speak about the unspeakable? How do you write a book that people may not dare pick up? Blood, shit, periods: how do you persuade people that these
things are critical, when they don’t want to talk about them?

Rose George writes books and journalism about an eclectic range of topics, from seafaring to faecal sludge management. She writes for the Guardian, New York Review of Books, New Statesman and many others. She has attended Saddam Hussein’s birthday party (twice) and been a war correspondent in Kosovo, accidentally. As a result of her journalism, she has worked with the UN, UNICEF, the Gates Foundation and other NGOs on sanitation issues, including travelling through India on a global WASH carnival.