Pestilence

INTRODUCTION The English countryside is never typified more than by the beauty of many of the tiny villages and hamlets that lie dotted in the midst of its agricultural heartlands. Those villages, many dating back to the time of William the Conqueror or earlier times form that extraordinarily special backbone to the very ‘Englishness’ of the countryside. In many cases unaffected by progress and unchanging over the years these islands of peace within an otherwise frantically industrialised and heavy-industry driven economy often hark back to an era when life was lived at a slower pace, when neighbours could leave their doors open without fear of being robbed, and when everyone knew everyone else and the community cared for itself and each other as though the village itself were a living, breathing entity. Every so often however, an event may take place that upsets and dislocates the unchanging equilibrium of even such idyllic locations. It may be fire, flood or pestilence, but it goes without saying that when such upheaval strikes life in those beautiful and tranquil havens may never ever be quite the same again. What follows is the story of one such village, and of one such upheaval, and so we must take a short journey back in time to the year nineteen fifty eight, back to when it all began, to when death wore a new cloak, walked a new course, and the terror of a bygone age reached out to chill the hearts of those who crossed its path. Author’s note The timing of the release of this edition of Pestilence is purely coincidental to the fact the world is currently in the grip of the Global Coronavirus pandemic. Hundreds of thousands of people have succumbed to this terrible illness and there are certainly some similarities between the reality and the fiction as presented in a small way in this book. Some of my associates have almost called the book prophetic, written as it was over ten years before the current pandemic. Any such similarity between the fictional events told of within these pages is entirely coincidental, though it cannot be denied that the feelings and emotions of the people of my fictional town of Olney St. Mary do without doubt chillingly mirror the reality as reported in the national and international press as we watch the horrors of the reality unfold. If this book carries a message it is simply…Stay safe, and happy reading!