{"product_id":"one-fine-day-9781912836994","title":"One Fine Day","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\n\n\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA time-travelling, genealogical adventure,\nbringing pre-industrial, rural, eighteenth-century England vividly to life on\nthe page.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOne day Ian Marchant, acclaimed author of books\non music, railways and pubs\u003cem\u003e,\u003c\/em\u003e decided, as all\nmen of a certain age must, to have a dig around his family history.\nSurprisingly quickly, a web search informed him that his seven-times-great\ngreat-grandfather, Thomas Marchant had left a detailed diary from 1714 to 1728.\nSo far, so jolly ...\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\nLife-loving diarist Thom - who liked a drink and a game of cards - feels\nrecognisably Marchant to Ian. With fascinating detail we learn about Thom's\nfamily farm and fishponds; about dung, horses and mud; about beer, the wife's\nnights out, his own job troubles and their shared worries for their children.\nBut as Ian digs deeper beyond the Sussex diary's bucolic portrait he discovers\na subtext - a family descended from immigrants, with anti-establishment\npolitics, who are struggling with illness, political instability and cash\ncrises - just as their country does three centuries on.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cem\u003e'When I was reflecting late one January evening\non the differences between Thom and me, I realised the unbridgeable thing that\ncomes between us is industrialisation. He lived right at its beginning, while I\nam living somewhere towards its end. Old Thom Marchant was one of the last\npeople before industrialisation to understand how his world worked - and how to\nbe largely self-sufficient in it. He knew where his food came from, his fuel,\nhis water, his clothes. He knew how the welfare system worked, and was part of\nits administration; he knew who looked after the roads, too. He collected\ntaxes. He was not separate from the system, but part of it.'\u003c\/em\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/i\u003eRich with immersive detail, \u003cem\u003eOne Fine Day\u003c\/em\u003e\ndraws a living portrait of Marchant family life in the 1720s and how their\nEngland (rainy, muddy, politically turbulent, illness-ridden) became the\nEngland of the 2020s.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ian Marchant","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48987227554043,"sku":"9781912836994","price":26.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0779\/3917\/9771\/files\/CoreSourceHub_9b59b13b-3266-4282-9bf4-ac1db25a2c45.jpg?v=1781661503","url":"https:\/\/indiepubs.com\/products\/one-fine-day-9781912836994","provider":"IndiePubs","version":"1.0","type":"link"}