A lost diary. A spinning pocketwatch. A gentleman wielding a deadly walking cane. And a boy who’s about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. When Julius Higgins isn’t running from Crimper McCready and his gang of bullies he’s working in his grandfather’s bookshop in Ironmonger Lane. Until Jack Springheel, a mysterious clock collector, turns up looking for the fabled diary of John Harrison‚Äîthe greatest watchmaker of all time. Before he knows it, Julius becomes a thief and a runaway and makes a deal with Springheel that he will live to regret. And all before he finds out that Harrison’s diary is really an instruction manual for making a time machine.