One Fine Day cover art

One Fine Day

A Journey Through English Time

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About this listen

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 Europe Great Britain

Critic reviews

'One very fine book' Spectator

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

'Original and entertaining' Daily Mail
All stars
Most relevant
I enjoyed the simplicity and pace of this gorgeous meander through history involving geography, politics and an amazingly regular diary keeper. It was wonderful to learn about the life of a relatively normal but generous and well liked community man and understand what was happening around the time.

Lovely meander through history

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