The Fullness of Time

A deeply absorbing exploration of the ways we mark time. Fascinating and full of beauty – KATHERINE MAY, author of Wintering
Most books about time teach you how to control your hours. This one teaches you how to inhabit them. Haynes shows how past generations read the day in flower petals, birdsong, and the slant of light – and what we lost when we stopped. The Fullness of Time is a quietly radical invitation to notice more, rush less and live deeper – DANIEL H. PINK, author of When
Haynes reminds us ancient practices such as waulking also marked a day, not in strict adherence to a mechanical timepiece, but in lived experience and in harmony with the elastic time of sunrise and sunset … In Haynes’s gorgeous and immersive prose, a world before widespread mechanization unfolds. With each instructive and poetic chapter, she shows us how time used to be measured by birdsong and flower bud, the color of twilight and the wide wheel of stars … Brings back the poetry of time, reintroducing terms such as “gloaming” and “dimpse”, which mean the dimness of twilight … In a world of hurry and deadlines, smartphones and social media, The Fullness of Time offers a reminder to slow down, to look up, to notice. Through evocative descriptions … Haynes invites us to take part in the daily rhythms of our natural world – Brandy Schillace * Wall Street Journal *
Over centuries, we have invited clocks ever deeper into our lives, but they are not the only keepers of time’s rhythms. In her sensuous exploration of natural clocks, from flowers and the farmyard to the stars, Cathy Haynes presents a world that is much more than human and ticks just as regularly as our horological machines. This is a deeply attentive view over signs of the time; time – as Haynes chronicles so beautifully – in its fullness. A revelatory and utterly wonderful book – DAVID ROONEY, author of About Time
Immaculately researched and beautifully written, Cathy Haynes resurrects the forgotten alchemy of timekeeping – LARA MAIKLEM, author of Mudlarking
Fascinating and enchanting! Each chapter broadens and lifts our awareness, reminding us that we get to choose where we focus our attention between one dawn and the next – TRISTAN GOOLEY, author of The Walker’s Guide to Outdoor Clues and Signs
Utterly charming and beautifully written, it is an ode to being present and attending to the sacred rhythms of life … This is a book that doesn’t run out of steam. Haynes’ thorough research ranges across all manner of cultural curiosities. Its seven carefully crafted chapters reconnect us with the simpler patterns of our ancestors, when daily life was shaped by natural markers of time – Cass Crocker * Plantlife *
Brims with wonders on every page. Time becomes far richer when measured by the voices of birds, the dances of flowers, the songs of Gaelic crofters and the grand movements of sun, shadows, and stars … An antidote to our twitchy, ticky, digital haste, and a portal to sacred, eternal, time in all its wholeness and perfection – SY MONTGOMERY, author of Of Time and Turtles
In a moment rife with distractions and too much to do, Cathy Haynes has a well-timed antidote. The Fullness of Time is a warm and insightful guide to the many ways, both subtle and vivid, that we can mark the passage of hours, months, and seasons. She shows us that by opening our senses, we can all discover the rich horological abundances in the world around us. What a simple, yet powerful, gift! – JULI BERWALD, author of Spineless and Life on the Rocks
I know what time is, St Augustine wrote, until I’m asked to explain it. These days, we might look to physics for an explanation. But if you want to learn how to experience time more fully, you should turn instead to this beautiful book about the ways we measure time with plants and animals, bodies human and celestial. An immersive, mind-shaping read – KIERAN SETIYA, author of Life is Hard
Every sentence is a pleasure, a revelation, a memory stirred, an avenue of enquiry opened. The Fullness of Time is, quite simply, a treasure – JINNY BLOM, bestselling author of The Thoughtful Gardener

Cathy Haynes is a curator, writer, artist and educator who has been developing a creative practice on aspects of time for two decades. She has been Timekeeper in Residence at Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, artist in residence in Victoria Park for Chisenhale Gallery, Curator for Art on the Underground (Transport for London) and a founder faculty member at Alain de Botton’s School of Life. She has contributed to Cabinet Magazine, The Guardian, The Human Zoo on BBC R4 and Monocle Weekly. She lives in London.

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