A major publisher has reported a huge increase in the sales of books about the spread of viruses and diseases, according to a UK-based charity.
The Reading Agency said Penguin Classics had experienced a 1393% increase in sales of The Viral Storm by the biologist Nathan Wolfe, which explores the spread of contagions.
Journal Of The Plague Year, which is a fictional account of the spread of disease in London written by Daniel Defoe and published in 1722, has also had a 750% rise in sales.
The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio, which is a collection of stories about a plague sweeping through Florence in Italy, has experienced a 288% uplift in sales, and The Bethrothed by Alessandro Manzoni, which recounts a virus in Milan, has sold 181% more