JUST ONE DAMNED THING AFTER ANOTHER by JODI TAYLOR

This was a win from Goodreads. I liked the bit about St Mary's and that made me enter the competition (that is the convent upbringing coming out in me. It never goes away either).

The book was gorgeous. Time travel in such a fun way - not the drama of Diana Gabaldon but a scientific, well planned out, I would say like going for work almost kind of feeling which brought it from the out of this world experience to a kind of mundane but exciting thing to read about. I almost am beginning to think now that maybe, just maybe this is going to be possible in about a hundred years!!! 

We follow the pursuits at St Mary's from the eleventh century in London, zipping off to the era of T Rex, then zipping back to the Crimean war and going here there and everywhere. We then have a major discovery on the way! Inadvertently against all policy a tiny bit of a fir tree comes back to 21st century St. Mary's. And why is it significant - because it got burnt and it had no future and then it dawns on everyone that what if you get the bits of history that were lost or went up in flames or just disappeared from the face of the earth. Those missing bits cannot affect the course of history so if they are found it would be now a major discovery. 

I loved the imaginative feel of this author. How she came or rather cooked up a story like this is very difficult for someone staid like me to imagine. I however loved to read about it. I only hope that I can get to Vol 2 and 3 at some stage soon.