I am around all week, apart from Sunday, when I am free from 9-11, then after 4.
One of my hobbies in the past was collecting old antique books, I loved the beautiful pictures, and loved to read them, I still have many of them to this day. Then I dug some out from the loft that are not books, but diaries, the everyday diaries of a prominent London Barrister which I got from a house clearance many years ago when I was a kid. What struck me was the years they are from, 1918 and 1919, not only World War 1 but the peak Spanish Flu years, something I had not considered before, until this pandemic.
The Spanish flu mainly killed younger people, unlike the corona virus. During the pandemic he went to church, weddings, events, one at St Paul’s Cathedral, no changes were made from what I have read to his day to day life, and it is fascinating reading. Tuberculosis seemed to be more of a worry then from what I could see, there is even a receipt from a sanatorium where you went for treatment for TB which is mint condition as if it had just been printed, of course those days were very different, WW1 killed a great many people, and the money was not there for people to do anything but get on with their lives, with no benefit system or NHS you either worked or starved. It is fascinating to look back on the past, and history was always my favorite subject.
Thinking of WW1 I did see a fantastic film this week “1917” which won 7 BAFTAS, well worth a watch.
Rose