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 for #HistFicThursday, it is my absolute please to welcome Elizabeth R. Andersen and her fantastic series, The Two Daggers . Here, Elizabeth takes us into 13th century Acre, dispelling a few misconceptions and welcoming us to the world of The Scribe and The Land of God ... Acre Harbour, present-day. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Imagine you are in that sacred space between sleeping and waking when your body slowly becomes aware of its surroundings, and the deliciousness of sleep is still with you. As you emerge into consciousness, you notice the hardness of your bed and the chill in the air. Instead of a soft, spring and foam-filled mattress, you feel an unfamiliar crackle of straw when you shift your weight. Something’s not right. You open your eyes and stare at the ceiling – wooden poles and thatch instead of painted drywall. You went to bed in the 21 st century and woke up in the 13 th . Will you be able to blend in, or will you be immediately noticed as an ...