Laura Spinney graduated from Durham University with a degree in Natural Sciences and is now a writer and science journalist based in Paris. She has written for the New Scientist, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph. Spinney's latest book, Pale Rider, examines what might be the the greatest human disaster, not only of the twentieth century, but possibly in all of recorded history - the Spanish flu of 1918-1920. Pale Rider recounts the story of an overlooked pandemic that killed as many as 100 million people - tracing it from Alaska to Brazil, from Persia to Spain, and from South Africa to Odessa.