To Say Nothing of the Dog (1997)

An exhausted time-travelling historian, an awkwardly displaced object and a Victorian excursion produce a comedy built from timing problems. Willis makes apparent digressions part of the pleasure, so this suits a reader happy to keep track of details while enjoying the social misunderstandings. History behaves as a system that resists careless interference, though the tone is much lighter than Doomsday Book. Their shared Oxford setting does not require reading that darker novel first.