The Pulse Glass: And the beat of other hearts

by Gillian Tindall

*As read on BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week*

'A genius for a certain kind of social history that, in shining a light on one small place, illuminates a huge amount' Sunday Telegraph

A toy train. A stack of letters. A tiny pulse glass, inherited from her great-great-grandfather, which was used to time a patient's heartbeat before pocket watches... Gillian Tindall, one of our most admired domestic history writers, examines seemingly humble objects to trace the personal and global memories stored within them, and re-animate the ghostly heartbeats of lost lives.

'Elegiac... Tindall reflects on a lifetime's interest in historical recovery' The Telegraph

'Tindall is a fine historian and writes with a wryness of everyday human foibles' The Times

Genres: Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

Published October 24, 2019

About the author

Gillian Tindall began her career as a prize-winning novelist. She has continued to publish fiction but has also staked out an impressive territory in idiosyncratic non-fiction that is brilliantly evocative of place.

Her The Fields Beneath: The History of One London Village which first appeared thirty years ago, has rarely been out of print; nor has Celestine: Voices from a French Village, published in the mid 1990s and translated into several languages, for which she was decorated by the French government.

Well known for the quality of her writing and the meticulous nature of her research, Gillian is a master of miniaturist history. She lives with her husband in London.

Reviews

[Anneliese Tirry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ik las in "The Guardian" over dit boek en ik wist dat ik dit moest lezen.
Het is een boek waarin de schrijfster aan de hand van voorwerpen of aan de hand van plaatsen nadenkt over de betekenis van deze objecten in het verleden en hoe die betekenis geëvolueerd is in de tijd, doordat bepaalde connotaties verdwijnen of veranderen of doordat dingen geen directe betekenis meer hebben etc. Die dingen kunnen allerhande zijn; brieven, foto's, gebruiksvoorwerpen... - hieraan koppelt de schrijfster haar herinneringen en filosofeert ze over het verstrijken van de tijd en tot wat dit leidt.
Dit boek heeft me bijwijlen tot tranen toe ontroerd, omdat het ook in mij dat verlangen naar die wereld van mijn jonge jaren wekte, het verlangen naar wat vergaan is. Soms waren de uitwijdingen wat aan de lange kant, maar nimmer vervelend. Erg mooi waren de delen over Frankrijk en over haar familie. Hard ook dat laatste.
Ik zal dit zeker nog eens herlezen.
"We visit churches in huge numbers today, and many old en beautiful ones are far better kept and repaired these days than they ever were when supposedly 'everyone went to church', but most visitors are keeping faith not so much with their God as with all the generations lying behind them. We see these fine buildings as great bridges to our own ancestors, our own collective past, and as a means to transcend, for half an hour, the everyday preoccupations that normally crowd our brains. Our general knowledge of the Bible, its stories and its phraseology, may be lamentably defective by the standards of our grandparents, and this is an undoubted loss, but we still light candles and think of others and of our own faith."

[Hilary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gillian Tindall writes carefully and deliberately about the history of small domestic objects, some of them her own or her family’s. She extrapolates from the original object and places it in its historical context. I really enjoyed this part of the book, and the section debunking “known “ but false history: Mary Seacole’s story for example, the Princes in the Tower, the Arthurian legends, the misinterpretation of historical records to conclude that there were significant numbers of people of colour in London in earlier centuries. Tindall is a really interesting writer and she gives the reader confidence in her historical analyses. I especially enjoyed her robust views on the best way to deal with past personal trauma, and her views about her mother!

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A typically moving and meticulous social history from Gillian Tindall. Fascinating throughout ...

[JoJo · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting set of vignettes of items that evoke memories in the author.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another lovely wander through the details of history.

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent and amazing read for those interested in literature, writing, history and existentialism.

[Pamela Pheasant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. Have read it twice and will probably read it again A fascinating and coherent excursion into personal memories and those things, like the pulse glass, that survive from the past.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

So hard to rate because it contained some really interesting stories and details, but I vehemently disagreed with the author in places! Read my full review: https://t.co/YI3Jsh6STQ

[Sarah Dunsbee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting ,objects that survive when we are gone and what they can tell us of lives gone and forgotten....only heard the abridged version on the radio, but would like to read the book and more of this author....this is history to me ,not wars and parliament .