Ranging across continents and centuries, Schama unpacks the stories of the often unknown individuals whose pioneering work changed the face of modern healthcare. Over the centuries, our ability to react to these sweeping killers has evolved, most notably through the development of vaccines. These days, trying to stay sane in a completely chaotic world makes life incredibly difficult, especially if you're struggling with your mental health. In the sexual and domestic violence team, individually managing a 20-person caseload at any one time, McDonald was dismayed at how little she could help victims.

The vast majority of people join the police to make a difference and to help, and they’re awarded these powers to help with that. In her incisive book she explores the challenges of life on the front line, dealing almost exclusively with serious crimes against women, and what that reveals about the Met Police now. The story of disease eradication, however, has never been one of simply science - it is political, cultural and deeply personal.McDonald has now written a book about her experiences, No Comment: What I Wish I’d Known About Becoming a Detective, in which she lays bare the realities of life in the police force, and which the police force is unlikely to use as an advertising manual for potential new recruits.

I made sure to say everything I was supposed to say within that situation: I said all the legal preamble; I made sure the technology worked. The latest poll shows just 40 per cent of Britons have confidence in the police – down from 67 per cent last year, and 87 per cent in 1981. Here, a newcomer could become detective material within just five months, which, McDonald concedes, “is pretty quick.In a statement, the Met said that after McDonald raised bullying concerns, she had been offered “substantial management guidance, advice and welfare support” and encouraged to come forward with more information; it insisted that it takes allegations of officer criminality, as in Mel’s case, “incredibly seriously”. The police may not be super-keen or all good, but they are investigating every single report of rape fully, the same with domestic abuse: they really are. I’d seen Line of Duty, of course,” she says, “and so I knew that ‘no comment’ could happen, but when it happened to me… oof! When it was launched, to tackle an unprecedented recruitment crisis, over 4,500 people, Jess included, applied.

Reflecting on years of personal and professional experience, she opens up to readers about her struggles with mental health and different treatments over the years, hoping to provide reassurance and guidance to anyone confronting their own anticipated, or unanticipated, struggles with mental health. Written with candour and balance, Jess McDonald lifts the lid on why cultural change is nigh on impossible in the Metropolitan Police and how the justice system conspires against the most vulnerable. She never even had to do time in uniform, as one of the first recruits to the Met’s fast-track direct entry detective scheme.The first time Detective Constable Jess McDonald interviewed a suspect who declined to answer questions, she was a little thrown. Baroness Louise Casey, a former government crime adviser, found the Met to be “institutionally racist, misogynist and homophobic”. It was proving controversial because it allowed entrants to fast-track through the ranks, thereby bypassing any necessity to become, say, a police officer first, and learn on the job. McDonald, then 31, was a graduate of the Met’s Direct Entry Scheme, a new programme devised to tackle the serious recruitment crisis within the force.