Timekeepers

Timekeepers

Main

Hardback (29 Sep 2016)

Not available for sale

Includes delivery to the United States

Out of stock

This service is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Publisher's Synopsis

SUNDAY TIMES CULTURE BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016

OBSERVER SCIENCE BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016

Not so long ago we timed our lives by the movement of the sun. These days our time arrives atomically and insistently, and our lives are propelled by the notion that we will never have enough of the one thing we crave the most. How have we come to be dominated by something so arbitrary?

The compelling stories in this book explore our obsessions with time. An Englishman arrives back from Calcutta but refuses to adjust his watch. Beethoven has his symphonic wishes ignored. A moment of war is frozen forever. The timetable arrives by steam train. A woman designs a ten-hour clock and reinvents the calendar. Roger Bannister becomes stuck in the same four minutes forever. A British watchmaker competes with mighty Switzerland. And a prince attempts to stop time in its tracks.

Timekeepers is a vivid exploration of the ways we have perceived, contained and saved time over the last 250 years, narrated in the highly inventive and entertaining style that bestselling author Simon Garfield is fast making his own. As managing time becomes the greatest challenge we face in our lives, this multi-layered history helps us tackle it in a sparkling new light.

Book information

ISBN: 9781782113195
Publisher: Canongate Books
Imprint: Canongate
Pub date:
Edition: Main
DEWEY: 153.753
DEWEY edition: 23
Language: English
Number of pages: 349
Weight: 496g
Height: 146mm
Width: 315mm
Spine width: 36mm