Dr. Alanna Skuse

Author, Academic, Historian

Dr. Alanna Skuse is a literary scholar, historian and author with a focus on stories about medicine, bodies, and Renaissance England.

Her book, 'The Surgeon, The Midwife, The Quack: How to Stay Alive in Renaissance England', which tells the stories of the men and women who transformed Renaissance medicine, will be published by OneWorld on 16 October 2025.

Alanna teaches literature as Associate Professor at the University of Reading, UK, and has published academic books and articles on the history of cancer, surgery, disability, Shakespeare and self-harm. She also runs public history projects, and writes and broadcasts for BBC Radio, Wellcome Stories, The Conversation and History Today.

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Discover the remarkable birth of modern medicine.

Historian Alanna Skuse ventures into the bustling medical marketplace of Renaissance England – a world of travelling surgeons, prosthetics’ craftsmen, faith healers and, of course, snake oil salesmen. Humane and entrancing, 'The Surgeon, The Midwife, The Quack' reveals the miraculous birth of modern medicine. Out 16 October 2025.

Pre-order here

People in the past did not sit around and wait to die, any more than we do today. Just like us, they worried about their health, shopped around for treatment, and demanded better from their doctors and surgeons.”