One Fine Day

A Journey Through English Time

De: Ian Marchant

Narrado por: Ian Marchant

A time-travelling, genealogical adventure, bringing pre-industrial, rural, eighteenth-century England vividly to life.

One day Ian Marchant 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.

Diarist Thom – who liked a drink and a game of cards – feels recognisably Marchant to Ian. With immersive 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.

©2023 Ian Marchant (P)2024 September Publishing and Ian Marchant

Reseñas de la Crítica

'One very fine book' Spectator

'Infectiously curious... a delightful thing' Financial Times

'Original and entertaining' Daily Mail

Fascinating trip back in time

I so enjoyed Ian’s storytelling, humor, curiosity, and wonderful narration of his journey back 300 years to get to know a great great great (a bunch more) paternal grandfather. We learn about so much through this memoir about travel, food, cultural customs, social mores, political perspectives, health, illness, and what is most meaningful in life to Ian and I think many of us. It was sad knowing he recently passed.