SCOTS journalist, Sally Magnusson, is set for a mini-Scottish tour next week to promote her new book which is all about the fascinating uses to which urine has been put over the centuries: titled, ‘Life of Pee: The Story of How Urine Got Everywhere’.
The Glasgow-born broadcaster, writer and an anchorwoman for BBC Scotland’s Reporting Scotland news programme, heads for Langholm, Dundee and Inverness amidst a career in which she effortlessly seems to juggle half a dozen projects at a time – explaining to The Scotsman, recently: “I’m a freelance so it’s either a feast or a famine; I just get on with it and muddle through.”
In the blurb for a programme, ‘Secret Science of Pee’, which Magnusson presented earlier this month for BBC Radio 4, it said: “Magnusson provides a truly surprising and enlightening look at some of the more extraordinary and innovative contemporary scientific applications for urine; asks why we’ve become so uncomfortable with even talking about this casually despised blood product when it has been an essential part of life for centuries; and considers the shocking environmental cost (the UK uses 65,000 gigajoules a day to pump, stir, heat and aerate our urine – that’s about a quarter of the output of the country’s largest coal-fired power station) of flushing away such an abundant and abundantly useful substance.”
Magnusson’s new book will be in the shops on Thursday. The author is often seen as primarily a religious broadcaster, after becoming a ‘Songs of Praise’ presenter in 1984. However, in addition to making some hard-hitting, award-winning TV documentaries, she has also written eight books.
She is the eldest of the five children of Iceland-born journalist and broadcaster, Magnus Magnusson, and the legendary Scottish journalist, Mamie Baird, who met when they both worked for the Scottish Daily Express.
Magnusson lives in a farmhouse on the north-west fringes of Glasgow, which she shares with her husband, award-winning film director, Norman Stone.
Her itinerary next week is: November 8 – Buccleuch Centre, Langholm; November 9 – Dundee University, Dundee; November 10 – Eden Court Theatre, Inverness.
‘Life of Pee: The Story of How Urine Got Everywhere’ is priced £10.99.
