To Say Nothing of the Dog

By Connie Willis

This novel is set about fifty years in the future and time travel has been around for about thirty years. When first developed, time travelers had hoped to go to the past and bring back treasure. But it didn't work. The time travelers could not bring anything from past back. Time wouldn't allow it. Every time it was tried, the device to travel back to the future refused to work until the contraband was removed. After this was figured out, the greedy exploiters lost interest in time travel and it was relegated to academics and historians who wished to used it for simple research.
Of course, messing about in the past can have grave consequences for the future. Even something as simple as causing a fated meeting not to occur by delaying one of the principals for a few minutes can have repercussions that last into generations. So it's a good thing that Time is very stable and has the ability to correct interference. So time travelers have to be very careful when visiting the past.
But major, pivotal events are off-limits to time travelers. When they try to visit these times, they can't do it. They end up somewhere else or somewhen else. At the time of this story, one of those critical events is the destruction of Coventry Cathedral in England in World War II by a bombing raid from Germany.
Anyway, a very influential and wealthy woman in the present time of the story, the 2050s, has decided to rebuild Coventry Cathedral. She is determined to produce an exact replica of the building, including all its furnishings and decorations. She has managed to do so with the exception of one item, the bishops bird stump, which is a large, iron, heavily decorated vase. This vase may have been in the cathedral when it was bombed or it may have been removed with most of the other valuables just before the bombing. But it was never seen again after the bombing. So this woman has mobilized the time travelers, who refer to themselves as historians, to go into the past and try to figure out what happened to the vase.
Meanwhile, one of the historians has come back from the past with a cat. Now, this is supposed to be impossible, since previously no one was able to bring anything forward, alive or inanimate. The historian is part of the crew trying to gather info on the lost vase for which task she has been in the late 1800s attempting to gain access to a young woman's diary that may have the last name of a person who may have knowledge about the lost vase, some fifty years in that person's future. The historian, Verity, impulsively rescued the cat from being drowned by the family's butler (in the 2050s, cats are extinct), and also impulsively brought the cat to the future. Of course, everyone is astounded that she was able to do this and also concerned that removal of the cat might affect the course of history. So another historian, Ned, is sent to take the cat back.
Repeated time jumps make the time traveler loopy and Ned has been making lots of jumps trying to gather info about the lost vase. As a result, he is very time-lagged and completely zones out when he is given the instructions about returning the cat. The only thing he really remembers is that he is supposed to stay in the past for a few days to rest and recuperate. He doesn't remember about the cat or even realize that it is in a basket with the rest of his gear that he is traveling back with.
So he goes back to the same time and locale as the cat came from and, in his befuddled state, accidentally prevents the owner of the cat, who also is the owner of the diary that Verity was trying to get a look at, from meeting the man she is supposed to marry and instead the young woman meets another young man and they fall in love, which also prevents this young man from meeting the woman who is supposed to be his future wife. So somehow Ned and Verity have to correct their interference with the past in order to keep from changing the future. And also locate the bishops bird stump.

Whew, that was a long explanation and that's just laying the foundation. Ned and Verity go on to have quite a time in Victorian England, with Ned embarking on a boat trip down the river that has a lot in common with another boat trip, recorded in Jerome K. Jerome's humorous book, THREE MEN IN A BOAT (TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG). You don't need to be familiar with the Jerome book to enjoy this story, but it does add an extra something if you are.
Well, a lot doesn't happen in this story, it's mostly about Ned coping with Victorian times and trying to correct the consequences of his actions. Sometimes the plot gets a little thick, with all the time travel intrigue, bouncing back and forth between the future, 1940s Coventry, and the Victorian era. It's a lighthearted book, often mildly amusing, but not a funny as the book it emulates, THREE MEN IN A BOAT.