Time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like a banana. The Beatles learn to be brilliant in an hour and a half. An Englishman arrives back from Calcutta but refuses to adjust his watch. Beethoven has his symphonic wishes ignored. A US Senator begins a speech that will last for 25 hours. The horrors of war are frozen at the click of a camera. A woman designs a ten-hour clock and reinvents the calendar. Roger Bannister lives out the same four minutes over a lifetime. And a prince attempts to stop time in its tracks.
Timekeepers is a book about our obsession with time and our desire to measure it, control it, sell it, film it, perform it, immortalise it and make it meaningful. It has two simple intentions: to tell some illuminating stories, and to ask whether we have all gone completely nuts.
- 368 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
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Table of contents
- Cover Page
- Also by Simon Garfield
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Frontmatter of Timekeepers
- Contents
- Introduction: Very, Very Early or Very, Very Late
- Chapter One: The Accident of Time
- Chapter Two: How the French Messed Up the Calendar
- Chapter Three: The Invention of the Timetable
- Chapter Four: The Beet Goes On
- Chapter Five: How Much Talking Is Too Much Talking?
- Chapter Six: Movie Time
- Chapter Seven: Horology Part One: How to Make a Watch
- Chapter Eight: Roger Bannister Goes Round and Round
- Chapter Nine: Vietnam. Napalm. Girl.
- Chapter Ten: The Day Shift
- Chapter Eleven: Horology Part Two: How to Sell the Time
- Chapter Twelve: Time Tactics That Work!
- Chapter Thirteen: Life Is Short, Art Is Long
- Chapter Fourteen: Slowing Down the World
- Chapter Fifteen: The British Museum and the Story of Us
- Epilogue: Humility Watch
- Acknowledgements and Further Reading
- Permission Credits
- Index
- Promo page for other Canongate titles
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Yes, you can access Timekeepers by Simon Garfield in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Sociology. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.