It's Only Blood: Anna Dahlqvist in conversation with Gabby Edlin (Bloody...

@@Across the world, 2 billion experience menstruation, yet periods are seen as a mark of shame. We are told not to discuss it in public, that tampons and sanitary pads should be hidden away, the blood rendered invisible.

In her book It’s Only Blood (Zed Books), journalist Anna Dahlqvist tells the shocking but always moving stories of why and how people from Sweden to Bangladesh, from the United States to Uganda, are fighting back against the shame.

She will be in conversation with Bloody Good Period. founder Gabby Edlin, an activist campaigning for an end to period poverty. This initiative started with a "whip-around" for donations of towels or tampons and has expanded into a full-blown operation to collect and distribute toiletries and period supplies for asylum seekers all around the UK.

Hosted by Waterstones TCR’s Rosie Beaumont-Thomas, the evening will seek to explore the grave and practical consequences from these taboos, a review of where we are at with the effects of period poverty, and a frank discussion about periods, which about 800,000,000 people have every day.

Waterstones TCR will donate what would have been a speaking fee in the form of sanitary products to Bloody Good Period, which you can support via www.bloodygoodperiod.com. We will have donation stations on the evening if you’d like to contribute sanitary products, and please spread the work on social media about the valuable campaign.

Copies of Anna’s book will be on sale and she will be signing copies.