Explore Essays and memoir
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War and Virus
Vesna Maric
‘Wars, national disasters and pandemics do not cause social disintegration – they reveal it, and deepen it.’
Vesna Maric on the difference between wars and viruses.
The Pandemic, Our Common Story
Anna Badkhen
Anna Badkhen was researching Eden – the origins of humanity in the Afar Triangle of East Africa – when coronavirus broke out across the world.
The Lessons We Choose
Beth Gardiner
This will not be the last crisis. What can we learn from this one?
Plague Diary: March
Gonçalo M. Tavares
A coronavirus diary from the Portuguese writer Gonçalo M. Tavares, translated by Daniel Hahn.
Mama’s Last Hug
Frans de Waal
‘Watching behaviour comes naturally to me, so much so that I may be overdoing it.’
The Medical Detective
Sandra Hempel
An extract from Sandra Hempel’s The Medical Detective, which follows the story of the man who identified – and helped stop – the cholera pandemic of the 1830s.
From the Spanish Flu to Covid-19
Reina James
Reina James compares our response to Covid-19 to the reaction to the Spanish Flu in 1918.
The Knowledge
Barclay Bram
Barclay Bram on the infamous London black cab exam, and how communal knowledge is changing.
