Book tells the story of devastating diseases over the ages including cholera and Covid
Mum of two and prolific writer, Ruth Mansergh, has again put pen to paper and published her fourth book which features the Sheffield cholera monument and findings by archeologists from the University of Sheffield.
Ruth went to school and university in Yorkshire where she studied English with Social History because of her interest in researching and writing about local history.
She has worked as a journalist since graduating, including ten years as a freelance teletext journalist, and 15 years as a sub-editor for publications including Financial Adviser and the Daily Mail.
Ruth explained: “I decided to work from home as a freelance writer/sub-editor because I have two children and commuting can prove complicated because of my disability, a form of intractable epilepsy that involves periods of confusion and subsequent exhaustion.”
Her main love is book writing and her newest self-published piece is called Plague Stones, Bowls and Memorials: Disease Outbreaks in England from 541 AD to Modern – a 139-page read which is available on Amazon.
She explained the book: “There is a tendency to think of the Black Death, which reached England in 1348, the Plague of London and the Spanish flu, which hit the UK in a series of waves, as being isolated events.
"However, there have been devastating infectious diseases through the ages, including English sweating sickness, the cholera epidemic, diphtheria, smallpox and Covid-19.
"Across the country, monoliths called plague stones are still in existence. They were erected outside established market areas showing where town and country people could trade with minimal risk of contamination.
"Stones were hollowed out to form a bowl, which would have been filled with vinegar to disinfect coins. And there are memorials to disease victims, such as the Sheffield cholera monument completed in 1835.”