My Grandfather's Clock: Four Centuries of a British-Australian Family

(Hardback)

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British Australia- a search for family. A great-aunt's bequest - a 200-year-old grandfather clock - sends historian Graeme Davison on a journey deep into his father's family's past. From their tribal homeland in the Scottish Borders he follows them to the garrison town of Carlisle, from industrial Birmingham to Edwardian Australia, and from the Great War to his own suburban childhood. This is the story of an ordinary family's journey from frontier warfare and dispossession through economic turmoil and emigration to modest prosperity. At each step, we are led to reflect on the puzzles of personal identity and the mystery of time. Based on a lifetime of creative scholarship, My Grandfather's Clock is a moving testament to the power of family history to illuminate the present.

Author Bio

Graeme Davison is a Sir John Monash Distinguished Professor in the School of Historical Studies at Monash University since 1982. He has also held appointments at the University of Melbourne, the Australian National University and Harvard University, where he was Professor of Australian Studies. His books include The Rise and Fall of Marvellous Melbourne and How the Car Won Our Hearts and Conquered Our Cities, which won the Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-fiction.