*As read on BBC Radio 4s 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 TelegraphA toy train. A stack of letters. A tiny pulse glass, inherited from her great-great-grandfather, which was used to time a patients 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 lifetimes interest in historical recovery The TelegraphTindall is a fine historian and writes with a wryness of everyday human foibles The Times