{"product_id":"one-fine-day-a-journey-through-english-time","title":"One Fine Day: A Journey Through English Time","description":"\u003cp\u003eA timetravelling, genealogical adventure, bringing preindustrial, rural, eighteenthcentury 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 seventimesgreat greatgrandfather, Thomas Marchant had left a detailed diary from 1714 to 1728. So far, so jolly ...Lifeloving diarist Thom  who liked a drink and a game of cards  feels recognisably Marchant to Ian. With fascinating detail we learn about Thoms family farm and fishponds; about dung, horses and mud; about beer, the wifes nights out, his own job troubles and their shared worries for their children. But as Ian digs deeper beyond the Sussex diarys bucolic portrait he discovers a subtext  a family descended from immigrants, with antiestablishment 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 selfsufficient 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, illnessridden) became the England of the 2020s.Elegiac, consistently funny, deeply moving.  Richard BeardIan Marchant is one of Englands most original writers. One Fine Day is a masterwork.  Monique Roffey\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"TIMES UK","offers":[{"title":"Marchant, Ian \/ paperback","offer_id":47846989103349,"sku":"DADAX1914613554","price":12.15,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/5804\/8501\/files\/91ZjWuDm5cL.jpg?v=1773846731","url":"https:\/\/ergodebooks.com\/products\/one-fine-day-a-journey-through-english-time","provider":"Ergodebooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}