The Pulse Glass And the beat of other hearts

<p><b>*As read on BBC Radio 4''s Book of the Week*</b><br><b><br>''A genius for a certain kind of social history that, in shining a light on one small place, illuminates a huge amount'' <i>Sunday Telegraph</i></b><br><br>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.<br><br><b>''Elegiac... Tindall reflects on a lifetime''s interest in historical recovery'' <i>The Telegraph</i></b><b><br><br>''Tindall is a fine historian and writes with a wryness of everyday human foibles'' <i>The Times</i></b></p>