About Me

I am a writer and journalist specialising in the history and science of infectious disease. A regular contributor to The Observer and The Lancet, my books include a global history of malaria and a social history of the 1918 influenza pandemic, Living With Enza, which was nominated for the Royal Society science book of the year in 2009.

In May 2019, six months before the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 emerged in China, I published The Pandemic Century: 100 years of panic, hysteria and hubris, explaining why, despite more than a century of medical progess, pandemics continue to take us by surprise, spreading fear and conspiracy theories.

As well as writing for popular audiences, I am a medical historian and have been published in Medical History, Social History of Medicine and the History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences.

Prior to becoming a full-time writer and researcher, I enjoyed a long career as an investigative reporter and feature writer at newspapers such as the Evening Standard, The Independent on Sunday, The Observer and The Guardian.

In 1996 my Channel 4 Dispatches exposé of the British intelligence services’ involvement in the re-arming of the Argentine Navy after the Falklands War was shortlisted for the best current affairs documentary at Royal Television Society Awards.

I currently podcast at @goingviral_pod and lecture in the Department of Journalism at City, University of London.