Profile and Wellcome to publish the story of you

Profile Books and the Wellcome Collection have acquired The First Mystery: The story of you - before you were born by Katharina Vestre and with illustrations by her sister, Linnea Vestre.

The First Mystery tells the story of "you (and me and everyone), from conception to birth, from the first primitive cell divisions – until nine months later, when we fight our way out of an overly narrow opening as ready-made human children".

The blurb continues: "Did you know that the expression ‘The rabbit died’ (indicating that a woman is pregnant) stems from pregnancy tests during the 1920s, where the doctors injected the woman’s urine into a rabbit and later studied the changes in its ovaries; or that the tiny male sea worm ‘Bonellia viridis’ spends his entire life inside the much larger female, as her personal sperm donor. 

"These are two of the many strange facts you’ll find in The First Mystery, where Katharina Vestre tells us all about the miraculous process that takes place inside a mother’s womb. This is popular science, history of science, storytelling and public education at its best. Charming, entertaining, fun, accessible, inclusive, and knowledgeable."

Ed Lake, editorial director at Profile Books, and Kirty Topiwala, publisher at Wellcome Collection, acquired world English rights from Even Råkil of the Oslo Literary Agency.

The First Mystery will be published in Spring 2019 by Wellcome Collection and Profile Books.