Gumbi 2024 update Part 3.
Following the death of Gumbi Education Fund Founder John Vidal in October 2023, his widow Jen Vidal visited Gumbi in May 2024 with fellow Trustee Jenny Griffiths, and saw a sad sight – the Gumbi village library, symbolic of the GEF Founder John Vidal’s relationship with the village, had lost its roof in a storm (see picture below with Patrick and members of the Gumbi Library Committee). Jen Vidal has funded its re-roofing as a personal gift from John and herself, and a fitting tribute to John. There is a picture of John there as his spiritual home in Gumbi.
John Vidal’s book, “Fevered Planet”, and Gumbi
Also in the Gumbi library is a copy of John’s last book, “Fevered Planet”, which Jen Vidal presented to the Gumbi Village Chief during the visit in 2024, as this has a section on Gumbi. The book, about how diseases emerge when we destroy nature, was published in June 2023 not long before John died.
This is the book: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/fevered-planet-9781526632296/ with lovely endorsements, and it’s also available via the Guardian bookshop (Hardback https://guardianbookshop.com/fevered-planet-9781526632272 and Paperback https://guardianbookshop.com/fevered-planet-9781526632296/ ).
John wrote a piece about it just as it was published (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/04/deadly-pandemic-inevitable-avoid),
There is an extract on the BBC website (https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20231201-fevered-planet-how-climate-change-spreads-infectious-disease)
It was reviewed in the Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jul/05/fevered-planet-how-diseases-emerge-when-we-harm-nature-by-john-vidal-review-a-frightening-diagnosis and Times Literary Supplement https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/fevered-planet-john-vidal-book-review-emily-shuckburgh/