The Game's Afoot!

On this date in 1796, at his home in Berkeley, the English scientist Edward Jenner (left) inoculated James Phipps, the eight-year-old son of his gardener, with material from cowpox blisters on the hand of a milkmaid Sarah Nelmes and set in motion a train of events that led to the eradication of smallpox. It is thus a fitting date for me to announce that I am writing a book entitled The Last Days of Smallpox, which not only covers events in Birmingham in 1978, but also several other twentieth-century smallpox outbreaks, with details of context and reactions. In many interesting ways, these outbreaks hold up a mirror to the society of the time, but also resonate with our own times.

Like my previous book, The Rough Guide to Evolution, this is a labour of love, which I am having to fit in around my usual academic work of doing research and teaching, writing papers and grants. I have now managed to get 30,000 words down on the page, which gives me the confidence to believe I will actually get this book written, although there is still much more to do. But I think I am now ready to let others join me in this adventure, so that on this blog I will share my journey as an author and also release drafts of some parts of the book in the hope of eliciting constructive comment, garnering a few words of encouragement to keep me going and whetting the reader's appetite for the completed work!

In this age of disintermediation, I am aiming to self-publish via Amazon or some equivalent service, but sorting all that out, together with marketing of the book will also be an adventure worth sharing.

To start the ball rolling, the next few posts will be samples from the current draft of the book. Later, I will share my experiences in finding sources, witnesses and information and, maybe, even get readers to help me in my research.