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 ...
"A Wounded World" by Crit Kincaid Book Review ☆☆☆☆☆ “A Wounded World” was one of 5 books I got off Amazon. I’d just got a subscription for Kindle Unlimited and I knew I would want to read something while on the train north. I scrolled through my Kindle and clicked on this book at random – entirely unsure what to expect but I wasn’t holding my breath… The first chapter gripped my attention in an uncommon way. I have not read many books where my interest is piqued so near the beginning but I found that I really did not want to put my kindle down. The Highland scenery went by…and I was still engrossed in this book. As far as I’m concerned, a book that can elicit heightened emotions from me is a sign of good writing. At one point, I looked up from the ‘page’, needing to find the composure to carry on. My Mum notices, as she does, and moves forward to place her hand over mine. “Don’t read it!” She says. “No, I have to.” I stubbornly look back down to my kind...