AN HISTORIAN from Warwickshire has created a book of photographic sketches to raise money for the Intensive Care Unit at Warwick Hospital.
Profits from the book by Allan Jennings, who is a member of Leamington History Society, will be donated to the unit as staff continue to battle scores of covid cases.
Allan said: “The National Health Service is 72 years old this year and the staff have had their most difficult year in all of that time. They put their lives on the line to help the rest of the population and some of them have paid the ultimate price. Thousands of former employees heard the call and resumed work at their local hospitals. Everyone worked long hours, in some cases double shifts, day after day. Many were called upon to help in intensive care units where a significant number of patients were being ventilated – and then when they finished work for the day, or night, they struggled to buy groceries from the supermarket because the shelves had been stripped bare.”
“The coronavirus pandemic this year has changed so many lives. Who would have thought back in 2019 that we would ever experience such an event – isn’t that something that happened 100 years earlier with the Spanish Flu, or in Asia or Africa?”
The book also includes colour sketches of Warwick, Kenilworth and Stratford, since pandemic restrictions have meant more people have enjoyed their local surroundings.
He added: “We are very fortunate to live in a lovely town and a picturesque part of the country and so I thought that I would try to reflect some of our buildings and views, whether historic, architecturally interesting, new or old.
“I could have written another local history book, or even put together a book of ‘normal’ photographs – but I wanted to do something different and I ended up putting together a book which provides very different images of the local area to what you normally see.
“As well as being a good way to show support for the NHS, it will also make an excellent Christmas present.”
The book can be reserved and collected from the Waterstones Leamington branch.
