Letter From Plague Island - How It All Began

From pandemic fog to political reckoning: the story behind Notes From Plague Island.

In the early days, we felt like this: a small vessel in a storm no one could chart.

Dear friends,

Sometimes it feels strange to think that Notes From Plague Island began not in a newsroom or study, but in the fog of a global pandemic.

Back then, the name wasn’t a metaphor. It was a diagnosis. England (and Britain more broadly) had become a lonely, fearful island, sealed off by infection and incompetence. We felt adrift from sense, reason, and truth. Writing became our only form of navigation.

When we first started, we honestly didn’t know if anyone would read a single word we wrote. It felt like dropping messages into the ocean during a storm. Even now, it still surprises us - every like, every subscription, every comment is noticed and appreciated. And we mean it when we say: we aim to reply to every single one of you. This project has always been a conversation, not a broadcast.

We started writing in 2020, when the world shrank to a handful of rooms and the daily briefing. The streets were empty, the air thick with fear, and every cough felt like a loaded gun. Our children were only young then; they were meant to be making memories of ordinary childhoods, not learning what ‘lockdown’ meant.