Nature’s Great Beyond blog picks up on an interesting tale from London’s East Smithfield (that little-known area just north of St Katharine’s Docks).

A new study in PNAS suggests that the ‘Black Death’ of 1349 was not the indiscriminate killer suggested by many sources.

Possibly not a real plague victim

By studying human remains, scientists concluded that the weak and infirm were more at risk than the fit and healthy.

Well, duh! – I hear you say.

But it isn’t so counter-intuitive as you might think, as the New York Times points out.

This is a subject close to my heart. Or, rather, my bed. You see, I recently spent the night in the company of some 17th Century plague victims.

It started when a cache of bones was unearthed in old warehouses beneath London Bridge, and dated to the mid-1600s. Since the discovery, builders working on the site—soon to be the London Bridge Experience tourist attraction—have reported strange occurrences, and some refuse to enter the building.

Not so your intrepid Nature Networker. Armed with a rational mind, and a good bottle of wine, I arranged to spend a night amongst the corpses, some still in situ_. The full account, and spooky video, can be found on Londonist https://londonist.com/2007/12/londonistsleep.php .