This week, we finally managed to install our new (not new ) item of furniture - a mid-18th Century grandfather clock. It's not bright and shiny like more modern ones, but a dark oak with a warm patina which the beeswax polish is drawing out. In order to set it up, we had to do a certain amount of research - how to hang the pendulum, where the weight went on the endless chain - and it got me thinking... where and when did certain divisions of time come from? The time periods which I have written either had household clocks or didn't, I have not written novels from the time of their invention. Clocks have been around for a long time, and the obsession with measuring time in an ordered fashion dates back to at least the ancient Sumerians. It was they who established a circular reading of time and, I imagine, the sixty seconds/minutes came about as much because it was an easy way to divide a circle as anything else. But it wasn't until much later that the precision of seconds ...
Today I just want to take the opportunity to wish you and your family and friends a very merry Christmas!
I love writing Christmas from the past. There is something simultaneously simplistic and exuberant about earlier Christmases, and it is a great opportunity to look into the emotive side of personal history. You can tell a lot about an historical person by looking at how they regarded Christmas.
So here is a couple of snippets from Beneath Black Clouds and White which show two very different Christmases: https://www.stompermcewan.com/beneath-black-clouds-and-white-christmas
And, if it catches your eye, the eBook is currently free on Smashwords.
Have a Very Merry Christmas, Historical Fiction Fans!
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