Comments on: In Search Of Daniel Defoe

By: Martin lightfoot

Martin lightfoot — Sat, 11 Jan 2025 18:35:03 +0000

When I arrived at Bury St Edmunds in 1964 , a medical colleague gave me a copy of the ‘Journal of a plague year’ and insisted I read it. I have never regretted his order , and it should still be compulsory reading for anyone involved in community health.
Unfortunately the lessons within it were not heeded at the outbreak of the Covid epidemic.
As Peter Seager might say, “when will they ever learn”
And I have hanging in my study a copy of the “orders for health published by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the city of London concerning the infection of the Plague “ published on August 31st 1646.
It has not dated!

By: John Campbell

John Campbell — Sat, 11 Jan 2025 16:55:32 +0000

Isn’t ‘Journal of a plague year’ a work of complete fiction?

By: Adrian Jackson

Adrian Jackson — Sat, 11 Jan 2025 13:13:18 +0000

I seem to be becoming a regular commenter, all of a sudden. During Covid, the East End based organisation I led at the time, Cardboard Citizens, read A Journal together and created a number of short films, juxtaposing our experiences at the time with those Defoe relates. They are quite fun and can be found here: https://cardboardcitizens.org.uk/get-involved/programmes/london-on-lockdown/

By: Bernie

Bernie — Sat, 11 Jan 2025 10:18:14 +0000

Those of us who are short of imagination, or untrusting of it, would appreciate it if the author of the preceding comment would expand a little. What connection do you yourself make?

By: Rev'd Christopher Wood

Rev'd Christopher Wood — Sat, 11 Jan 2025 09:01:31 +0000

Daniel Defoe
I have never left a comment over all the years of my daily intake of Spitalfields Life [an area I worked in over the period that covered the closure of the market etc]
I just want to say that nobody ever makes anything of a set of grave ledger stones related to De Foe. Twenty years ago I was on the staff of St Margaret’s Kings Lynn, now Lynn Minster. One of my responsibilities was for St Nicholas Chapel, the largest chapel of ease in the country near the port of Lynn. At the West end, down the aisle are the grave ledgers of the Crusoe family. Two of them in the name of Robinson Crusoe. As De Foe [ a spy amongst other things] can not be recorded in Lynn, no connection is ever made. But I don’t think there can be any doubt about what the connection is.
Rev’d Christopher Wood