An enthusiastic piece of pop anthropology on the one subject that has ousted sex and money from the top of the obsessions league. Jay Griffiths takes the subject of time in her teeth and chews at it until it's a far more palatable item. Her exploration of the passage of time includes; our obsession with speed, with overtaking; motorways and their link to fascism; war; Mercury (god of flight) and the mythology of time and speed; Diana and Marilyn Monroe, flawed women who, through their violent deaths, have become timeless icons; history and the heritage industry; the meanness of Greenwich Mean Time; the fast language we now have to go with fast food; Aborigine dreamtime; the difference between festivals and pageants; May Day; and the New Year.