This biography of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762) was published this year. Nothing specific was said about the pandemic, but the obvious message is that it is time to more broadly understand her role in the adoption of inoculation as a medical technology.
Berlin compares Tolstoy with Maistre, a post-French Revolution, ultramontane Catholic, and extremely conservative thinker who thought Europe should return to the blind Catholicism and authoritarianism of the Dark Ages. He was a hedgehog.
I bought this book in 1978 and reread it after I finished my bio of Tove. Her father was a sculptor, Viktor Janssen, and her mother, “Ham”, an artist. It is a quick read-about 2 hours-and consists of short vignettes written from a child’s point of view.