News

The Surgeon, the Midwife, the Quack was reviewed in The Wall Street Journal by bestselling author Brandy Schillace. She writes: "In Ms. Skuse’s expert and frequently humorous telling, Renaissance medicine comes to life in all its gory and weird splendor. She offers us a glimpse of the medical marketplace at its birth but also provides us with a distant mirror. Here we see hawkers and healers, experimenters and extremists, in a field every bit as raucous, competitive, risky

Alanna has been appearing on podcasts including Dan Snow's History Hit, Not Just the Tudors, Talking Tudors and more. For a full list with links, check out the portfolio page - or play a sneak preview of Talking Tudors here.

Alanna's book The Surgeon, The Midwife, The Quack has been reviewed by The Sunday Times, who called it a 'rollicking history of Renaissance medicine'. The full-page review, by historian Dan Jones, praised Alanna for treading a 'thoughtful line between the weird and the touching' and for bringing a 'deep familiarity with the contemporary sources and a dry wit'. He also noted that the book 'lives or does on the specimens she pulls from the archives. Here, happily, she knocks i

An audiobook recording of The Surgeon, The Midwife, The Quack will be available on Spotify from the publication date (16 October 2025). ...

Alanna gave a talk to a sold-out audience at the Warwick Words History Festival on 2 October. Her talk introduced the stories of some of...

Look out for Alanna’s article about the Chamberlen family in the October edition of History Today . The Chamberlen family of male...

To mark the release of her new book, The Surgeon, The Midwife, The Quack: How to Stay Alive in Renaissance England , Alanna will be...

On 23 June, Alanna appeared at Chalke History Festival in conversation with John Tregoning, Professor of Vaccine Immunology and author...

Alanna's new book, 'The Surgeon, The Midwife, The Quack: How to Stay Alive in Renaissance England' will be published on 16 October 2025. ...