Product details
- ISBN 9781912836994
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 06 Apr 2023
- Publisher: Duckworth Books
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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'Bloody marvellous' Nicholas Lezard, New Statesman
'Marchant conspires with his diarist ancestor to bring to life the eccentricities and the importance of the early eighteenth century. Elegiac, consistently funny, deeply moving' Richard Beard, author of Sad Little Men
One day Ian Marchant, acclaimed author of books on music, railways and pubs, 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. So far, so jolly...
Life-loving diarist Thom - who liked a drink and a game of cards - feels recognisably Marchant to Ian. With fascinating 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.
Ian Marchant is Reader in the History of Technology and Culture at the Imaginary Free University of Radnorshire. His previous publications include In Southern Waters, The Battle For Dole Acre, Parallel Lines, The Longest Crawl, Something of the Night and A Hero for High Times. He is an intermittent presenter on Radio 4’s Open Country, and a regular diarist for the Church Times. He lives in Presteigne with his family.
