Produced behind closed doors, disposed of discreetly, hidden by euphemism, excrement is rarely out in the open in 'civilised' society, but the world of waste - and the people who deal with it, work with it and in it - is a rich one. This book takes us underground to the sewers of Paris and London and overground, to meet the heroes of India's sanitation movement, the Japanese genius at the cutting edge of toilet technology, and the biosolids lobbying team. With a journalist's nose for a story, and a campaigner's desire for change, Rose George also addresses the politics of this under-reported social and environmental effluent, and the consequences of our reluctance to talk about it. Witty, serious and original, "The Big Necessity" proves that excrement doesn't have to be - and shouldn't be - a dirty word.