This is based on a true story. The book shows people at their very best and their very worst. It made me consider what I would do. Could I be as brave as Anna? Could I support the leadership of a Minister intent on keeping me and my family in harms way? Could I help those already infected? There are many things to admire in this tale. The ending though is odd. I notice that other reviewers mentioned the ending and I agree it was unexpected, but maybe we are all just underestimating the courage and determination of one woman.

However in Eyam, a small village in the north, they acted in a unique way. Their intention was to act decisively and prevent the spread of disease. Only a few thin strands of evidence connect the rich stories that have been woven around Eyam’s epidemic with recorded history. The sum total of records from the plague itself is scanty: three letters by Mompesson written in 1666, the parish’s burial register and inscriptions on graves scattered around the village. Only two other written sources, one from 1702 and another from 1722, have credible claims to drawing on actual witnesses, and even they are second-hand, from the sons of the two priests, Mompesson and Stanley.Residents of Eyam would collect the supplies and then drop coins into small holes that were filled with vinegar believing it would disinfect the money. The village of Eyam," its historian begins his account, "has been long characterized throughout the Peak of Derbyshire, as the birthplace of genius – the seat of the Muses – the Athens of the Peak". During the 18th century the place was notable for having no fewer than four poets associated with it. Reverend Peter Cunningham, curate there between 1775 and 1790, published two sermons during that time as well as several poems of a political nature. In addition, William Wood's account speaks of "numberless stones in the burial place that contain the offerings of his muse". [33] Eyam is a small village in Derbyshire. Lying between Buxton and Chesterfield it is just north of Bakewell in the Peak District. Typically rural, most of its population were farmers. In the early 1660s it did not stand apart from any of the other numerous villages that lined the trade routes from London to the rest of England. And yet in 1665 Eyam became one of the most significant villages in England. The actions of its 800 inhabitants had far reaching and important consequences for the development of treatment of the plague.

Ring Around the Rosie by Anne Hanley; staged reading by Fairbanks Shakespeare Theatre (Alaska), 2004. [72] The present parish church of St. Lawrence dates from the 14th century, but evidence of an earlier church there can be found in the Saxon font, a Norman window at the west end of the north aisle, and Norman pillars that are thought to rest on Saxon foundations. There have been alterations since the Middle Ages, including a large sundial dated 1775 mounted on a wall outside. Some of the rectors at the church have had contentious histories, none less than the fanatically Royalist Sherland Adams who, it was accused, "gave tythe of lead ore to the King against the Parliament", and as a consequence was removed from the living and imprisoned. Village remembered for sacrifice of residents during plague". AP News. 30 January 2019 . Retrieved 23 April 2020.Watson, Greig (22 April 2020). "Coronavirus: What can the 'plague village' of Eyam teach us?". BBC News . Retrieved 28 July 2022. Inspired by these events, Brooks’ novel is narrated by Anna Frith, an 18-year-old widow with two young sons, who survived by working as a maid to the village minister Michael Mompellion and his wife Elinor, and occasionally for the Bradfords, a wealthy local family.