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 ...
"Victoria's Victorian Victory" by Abigail Shepherd Book Review ☆☆☆☆ I really enjoyed this book! It was about a subject that I'm really interested in - I love old-style farming. In fact, Mum and I love to snuggle up in front of an episode of "Victorian Farm". The fact that the story was engaging and very well written, on top of this, meant that I could very easily go back and read the whole book again! Vicky was very well developed throughout the book. I can't say I particularly liked her all the way through, but this made her human. I identified quite a bit with Mary-Anne and could see myself in some of her characteristics. Weirdly enough, I imagined the farm somewhere in Devon. I can't remember if it says where it is set – I think it was the strawberries! And the weather! My wish was that the ending could have been longer. By the end of the book, I felt like I knew the characters well and I would have liked maybe ...