{"product_id":"one-fine-day-a-journey-through-english-time-by-marchant-ia","title":"One Fine Day: A Journey Through English Time by Marchant, Ia","description":"\n        \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eISBN:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1914613554\u003c\/p\u003e\n        \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/strong\u003e Marchant, Ian\u003c\/p\u003e\n        \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition:\u003c\/strong\u003e new\u003c\/p\u003e\n        \u003cp\u003eA time-travelling, genealogical adventure, bringing pre-industrial, rural, eighteenth-century England vividly to life on the page.One day Ian Marchant, acclaimed author of books on music, railways and pubs, 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. So far, so jolly ...Life-loving diarist Thom - who liked a drink and a game of cards - feels recognisably Marchant to Ian. With fascinating 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.'When I was reflecting late one January evening on the differences between Thom and me, I realised the unbridgeable thing that comes between us is industrialisation. He lived right at its beginning, while I am living somewhere towards its end. Old Thom Marchant was one of the last people before industrialisation to understand how his world worked - and how to be largely self-sufficient in it. He knew where his food came from, his fuel, his water, his clothes. He knew how the welfare system worked, and was part of its administration; he knew who looked after the roads, too. He collected taxes. He was not separate from the system, but part of it.'Rich with immersive detail, One Fine Day draws a living portrait of Marchant family life in the 1720s and how their England (rainy, muddy, politically turbulent, illness-ridden) became the England of the 2020s.'Elegiac, consistently funny, deeply moving.' - Richard Beard'Ian Marchant is one of England's most original writers. One Fine Day is a masterwork.' - Monique Roffey\u003c\/p\u003e\n        \u003cul\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003c\/ul\u003e\n        ","brand":"Miakarts Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49675541381360,"sku":"NEW1914613554","price":9.89,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/ethereallybeautiful.com\/products\/one-fine-day-a-journey-through-english-time-by-marchant-ia","provider":"Ethereally Beautiful","version":"1.0","type":"link"}