Books by Sarah Atkinson
Herbal Chronicles
Last year as part of a ‘lockdown’ project I wrote another book ‘Herbal Chronicles’ in collaboration with Sally Bamber who did the illustrations – watercolours of the herbs. This book is a bit like going on a herb walk with me – I try and list the herbs as I would expect to see them on a spring herb walk with a few additions, covering appearance of the herb, uses and sometimes a story goes with this information. It’s launch was also held at Brantwood.
A Window on Medieval Medicine
After working on the book for around 10 years my book – A Window on Medieval Medicine was published in 2018 – it’s book launch was held at Brantwood. This book is based on the excavations carried out on the drains of a monastery on the hill at Soutra (between Berwick and Edinburgh) – during its heyday (1140 – 1420) it would have seen the border between England and Scotland moving regularly around it – essentially it was in a war zone – The Augustinian monastery had a large infirmary and it’s this medical waste that gives an insight into the medicines and medical treatment available at the time. Also, the book contains the first modern English translation of Macer – a medical hand book available in the middle ages derived from the writings of Dioscorides and Pliny – in a handy habit pocket size volume. Many monasteries had many volumes of this book recorded in their libraries – it was clearly a well used reference book.
