Pale Rider

Of the many books I’ve read about the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic, I especially love this one because Spinney takes a global perspective on the pandemic. Too often the Great Influenza gets narrated only as an Euro-American disaster linked to WWI.

Spinney enthralls by adding the rest of the world—China, India, Africa, and Latin America—to the pandemic mix. Her description of how the flu found Mohandas Gandhi (aka the Mahatma) in his ashram is fascinating. 

I read this book as background reading for writing my own virus-based novel, and it was an absolutely fascinating study of the response to a pandemic that took place almost exactly a century ago. It covers everything from the role of the First World War troops’ demobilisation on spreading the virus, to the impact of poverty on infection rates, to why young, fit people were the most likely to die of the illness. And, of course, why it was called Spanish Flu in the first place (spoiler alert: not because it came from Spain!)