From the desk of Louise Dean, founder of The Novelry.

The last lines of the poem Lockdown by the Poet Laureate Simon Armitage were inspired by the mythology of the village of Eyam in Derbyshire. 

the journey a ponderous one at times, long and slow by necessarily so.

They may console writers who have not made the progress hoped for in 2021, and I'm here to bring you words of cheer and a plan for the new year... Read on, dear writer.

The story goes that the plague came to the village of Eyam in 1665 when a flea-infested bundle of cloth arrived from London for the local tailor. Within a week his assistant George Viccars, noticing the bundle was damp, had opened it up. Before long he was dead and more began dying soon after. As the disease spread, the villagers turned for leadership to their Rev. William Mompesson and the Rev. Thomas Stanley. (Next slide, please, Reverend…)

The villagers agreed to accept strict quarantine to prevent the spread of the disease...