Acknowledgements

Kind invitations from Professor Frank Cox, to give a lecture at Gresham College on plague in early modern London, Alison Bailey, to submit an article on plague for The Biologist, and Dr Julian Davies, to speak on the topic of St Giles-in-the-Fields in the Great Plague, helped to focus my thoughts, just at the time when my editor at Tempus, Jonathan Reeve, was persuading me that a book on the subject was needed. I am very grateful to all of them for their encouragement. Kenneth Gage of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Bill White of the Museum of London Archaeology Service kindly gave advice on the aetiology of plague. Gillian Tindall’s careful reading of the text and Christabel Scaife’s skilful editing saved me from some unnecessary errors and Derek Kendall gave invaluable help with some of the illustrations. My wife Carolyn was good enough to follow my progress and make sound suggestions on the text. The pestilence has taken us from London to Leiden, from Nijmegen to Venice, and she has been startled to discover just how stimulating plague can be.