Clock This: My Life as an Inventor - Softcover

Baylis, Trevor

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0747273812 ISBN 13: 9780747273813

Publisher: Headline Book Publishing, London, 1999

Synopsis

The story of Trevor Baylis, the man who invented the clockwork radio. Baylis's success as an inventor has won him an OBE, the Presidential Gold and Silver medals from the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, and numerous visiting professorships at British universities.

About this title

Review

In Clock This, Trevor Baylis takes the reader on a jaunt through the mind of an inventor who, inspired by a television documentary about HIV and AIDS in Africa, immediately took to his workshop and set to work on a radio that would work without electricity or batteries. His now world-famous invention sells at a rate of 120,000 a month. No mean feat for a man who described his early educational abilities as "best suited to some form of early retirement."

However, after a childhood set against the backdrop of war-torn London--a veritable playground for Baylis and his buddies--and a life as an affluent teenager with 4 pounds per week, an apprenticeship with a soil engineering firm and one day a week day-release to study for a certificate in engineering, Baylis quickly found his feet in the real world.

But there is much more to him than an engineering prodigy who struck lucky. Indeed, his life has to date been well and truly less ordinary. A world-class swimmer who narrowly missed qualifying for the Olympics, and who then, incredibly, found his fins by demonstrating swimming pools and later by flirting with the circus, Baylis' sense of showmanship has certainly stood him in good stead for the later developments in his life that have brought him much publicity, an OBE, visiting professorships at numerous universities and a trip down memory lane as the victim of This is Your Life.

Clock This is the autobiography of a man whose infectious enthusiasm, dedication and humour have shone through every aspect of his life, and it certainly makes for an entertaining read. But through the effervescence of his writing Baylis also inspires, and indeed almost dares, the reader to sit down, think and create for themselves. He reckons that: "As long as you've got slightly more perception than the average wrapped loaf, you could invent something." So, what's stopping you? --Susan Harrison

Edition details

• Publisher: Headline Book Publishing, London
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0747273812
• ISBN 13: 9780747273813
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 273