The Ugliest Thing I Love: Photographer Giles Duley explains why his alarm clock is important

My mum gave it to me when I was about 14 or 15 and I’ve had it ever since. It says “Made in Japan” on it which now would mean it’s quite high-quality but 30 years ago was a sign it was quite cheap. It also has a “44” sticker on it which was the number I used to have on my helmet when I played American football.

It’s disgusting – I try and wipe it down but it’s covered in a think layer of world grime. It retains absolutely no element of style or anything. I do like design and right next to it is a beautiful 1920s Anglepoise lamp so it sticks out like a sore thumb. I guess that what’s special about it.

It’s been everywhere with me over the past 30 years – I had it with me in Afghanistan when I got blown up and it was in my bag when they gave my stuff back to me.

Everyone assumes that I must love travelling but I don’t particularly. I am very weird in doing things in set patterns so when I go to bed everything always has to be in the same place or I get really unsettled.

That’s exactly the same when when I’m in conflict areas. It’s an anchor. I can be in the South Sudan, sleeping on the floor of a mud hut but I’ve got my clock beside my bed in exactly the same place, so it always links back wherever I am, giving me this sense of home. You can wake up in the most alien of places with an immediate sense of familiarity. Somehow that grounds me.

I kind of worry what would happen to my sanity if it stopped working. It makes a very faint ticking noise and I find it very difficult to go to sleep just because my mind tends to be racing all the time. So the slight tick of that clock is something that for nearly 30 years I have had beside my bed. There’s a strange sense of calm that brings.

It’s not something I would have treasured when I first got it but it’s become incredibly important to me not just because of the passing of time.