ON Tuesday, October 14, Under the Edge Arts will be joining forces with Dr Jenner’s House and are delighted to host Wellcome Prize Shortlisted Author Professor Gareth Williams at a special Literature Festival Event in the Chipping Hall, Wotton Under-Edge.

Writer in Residence at Dr. Jenner's house, Professor Gareth Williams will take us through the history of polio from ancient Egypt to today's battle to eradicate the infection for all time. Professor Williams’ moving and compelling talk is the product of research undertaken when writing his acclaimed book 'Paralysed with Fear, the story of Polio', which was published in June 2013. This talk presents a fascinating and original view of the journey to understanding and defeating polio, exploring the profoundly moving experiences of victims alongside the medical and scientific landmarks in the history of the disease.

The story of mankind's struggle against polio is compelling, exciting and full of twists and paradoxes. One of the grand challenges of modern medicine, it was a battleground between good and bad science. Some research won Nobel Prizes; other work was flawed or fraudulent, holding up progress and endangering patients' lives.

For much of the twentieth century, polio inspired terror as the 'morning paralysis' which could break into any home and disable or kill a previously healthy person. The cruelty of the disease is epitomised by the iconic images of the crippled child and the iron lung. Our main weapons against polio are the vaccines developed in America in the 1950s when fear of polio was second only to that of the atom bomb, and soon it is hoped that polio will be eradicated for all time just like smallpox was over thirty years ago.

Gareth Williams is Professor of Medicine and former Dean of Faculty at the University of Bristol. He has written and co-authored over 20 books and has contributed to more than 30 others, including the Oxford Textbook of Medicine. His appearances on national and international radio and TV include the BBC2 documentary The Mary Berry Story. Gareth's latest book, ‘Paralysed with Fear, the story of Polio’ has been described as a 'splendid book, riveting from beginning to end, is a model of its type" Literary Review and praised by The Lancet for putting " the development of the polio vaccine in the context of the evolution of medical thought, causing us to relive our most primitive notions about what causes diseases and how to treat them.”

Professor Williams will deliver his talk at the Under the Edge Literature Festival starting at 8pm in Chipping Hall, Wotton-Under-Edge. There will also be the opportunity for book-signing and to purchase Gareth’s books. Dr Jenner’s House and Garden has been kindly nominated, by Gareth as recipients of all royalties generated through sales of both ‘Paralysed with Fear, the story of Polio’ and his acclaimed, Wellcome Trust Book Prize Award shortlisted, ‘Angel of Death; the story of Smallpox’ .