Grandfather Time

By J. W. Adlard

Grandfather Time is a comic, philosophical time-travel novel about how civilisation is shaped less by heroes and villains than by people who explain things at exactly the wrong moment.

An intelligent, well-meaning man is given access to time travel and a universal translator. Determined to observe history without interfering, he fails almost immediately. A casual clarification becomes law in Babylon. A helpful analogy hardens into monument in Egypt. A well-reasoned suggestion turns lethal in Persia. Across empires, cultures, and centuries, his words are mistaken for wisdom, his intentions mistaken for authority, and his presence mistaken for inevitability.

As history advances, the consequences escalate. Ideas ossify into systems. Nuance disappears. Power listens more closely than humility. And the longer he lives, the more dangerous even silence becomes.

Framed as a bedtime story told by a grandfather to his sleeping grandson, Grandfather Time blends dry wit with deep moral unease, asking uncomfortable questions about knowledge, responsibility, and the hidden violence of abstraction. In the tradition of Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams, but with a sharper philosophical edge, it is a meditation on progress, exhaustion, and the quiet burden of living long enough to see your thoughts outgrow you.

Funny, thoughtful, and unexpectedly moving, this is a story about time, mistakes, and the terrible weight of being right.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GFHMCBBW
• ISBN13: 9798243005197
• Release Date: January 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 148 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"