A time-travelling, genealogical adventure, bringing pre-industrial, rural, eighteenth-century England vividly to life on the page. One day Ian Marchant decided, as all men of a certain age must, to have a dig around his family history. Surprisingly quickly, a web search informed him that his seven-times-great great-grandfather, Thomas Marchant, had left a detailed diary from 1714 to 1728. Diarist Thom - who liked a drink and a game of cards - feels recognisably Marchant to Ian. With immersive detail we learn about Thom's family farm and fishponds; about dung, horses and mud; about beer, the wife's nights out, his own job troubles and their shared worries for their children. But as Ian digs deeper beyond the Sussex diary's bucolic portrait he discovers a subtext - a family descended from immigrants, with anti-establishment politics, who are struggling with illness, political instability and cash crises - just as their country does three centuries on. 'A unique and exhilarating exploration of time and love ... elegiac, consistently funny, deeply moving.' Richard Beard, author of Sad Little Men
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Product Details
Dimensions: 126 x 198mm
Publication Date: 15 Feb 2024
Publisher: September Publishing
Publication City/Country: United Kingdom
Language: English
ISBN13: 9781914613555
About Ian Marchant
Ian Marchant has worked for twenty-five years as a writer broadcaster and performer. His non-fiction books include Parallel Lines The Longest Crawl and A Hero for High Times which was long-listed for the Gordon Burn Prize. Ian has presented numerous broadcasts for Radio 3 and Radio 4 in particular on psycho-geography and contemporary rural affairs. He is an intermittent presenter on Radio's long-running Open Country and a regular diarist for the Church Times. He has written for the Guardian the Observer the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Times. He has made numerous appearances as a guest speaker compere quizmaster and lounge singer and is also a creative writing tutor and guest speaker for the Arvon Foundation. He lives in Presteigne with his family.