Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
From Pepys’ writing we can tell he was writing at the end of each day, about the day’s events. Therefore each day’s entry will be posted at around 11pm UK time.
Be the first to comment | Permalink | Wednesday 1 January 2003 | Housekeeping
BBC News Online asked me to write an article about this site.
Be the first to comment | Permalink | Thursday 2 January 2003 | Press for this site
I did an interview for NPR’s All Things Considered programme which you can now hear online.
Be the first to comment | Permalink | Saturday 4 January 2003 | Press for this site
Claire Tomalin’s Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self is BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week from Monday 6th January and you can listen to it online here.
4 comments | Permalink | Sunday 5 January 2003 | Pepys in the media
I’ve added a new page that lists the annotations posted to all diary entries and the People and Places pages. Ideal for those of you who like to keep up with what’s happening on the site!
Be the first to comment | Permalink | Wednesday 8 January 2003 | New features
More press coverage for the site in the last few days: USA Today, Washington Post (bottom of the page) and The Guardian, twice, in ‘Web Watch’ (which overstates the longevity of Haddock.org by three years) and as a Books ‘Site of the Week.’ The site is also mentioned at Die Zeit although they don’t appear to have permalinks.
1 comment | Permalink | Thursday 9 January 2003 | Press for this site
If you read the diary via RSS, you should probably check in on the RSS feed of this mini-weblog too, so as not to miss out on changes to the site: RSS v0.91 or RSS v1.0. Although you’re unlikely to read this if you use RSS and never come to the site…
Be the first to comment | Permalink | Thursday 9 January 2003 | Housekeeping
Do you use LiveJournal? You may or may not know there’s a Pepys’ Diary user. But something seems wrong with it becuase, if you scroll down, some days appear repeatedly. I’ve never used LiveJournal, so if you know what might be causing this, then do let me know!
3 comments | Permalink | Friday 10 January 2003 | Housekeeping
Apparently the problem with the LiveJournal version of Pepys’ Diary entries should be fixed now. Thanks to everyone that contacted me about it.
Be the first to comment | Permalink | Monday 13 January 2003 | Housekeeping
A few people (such as in these annotations) have asked that diary entries display the day of the week. The reason I haven’t done this before is because I’m attempting to keep the diary content as close to the original as the web format (and the translations through Victorian editors and Project Gutenberg’s processes) allow. Pepys’ diaries included the month and year at the head of a page and each entry was marked with just the date. Occasionally he seems to have noted Sundays, but not always.
So, the question is, do I include weekdays on each entry, and if so how? Feel free to discuss this below…
28 comments | Permalink | Monday 13 January 2003 | Housekeeping
In an annotation I’ve now lost (sorry), someone asked for more links to pages for people and places other than those that already have footnotes in the 1893 text, so that readers can add annotations. This is something I’ve considered, because the Victorian footnotes are somewhat erratic. However, if I added such links for every person and place mentioned, I’d be worried there would be too many extra pages for incidental characters about whom we will never have anything to say. That said, if you have a desire to annotate a character or place that doesn’t currently have a footnote page, simply email me with the name and the entry in which they’re mentioned. I recently set up pages for Pepys’ wife and maid after just such a request, and it’s not a problem.
8 comments | Permalink | Monday 13 January 2003 | Housekeeping
The Public Record Office in London is putting on a costumed reading of excerpts from Pepys’ diary on 13th February including music and a chance to look at the office’s Pepys documents. There’s also an exhibition running from 5th February to 31st May. More details here.
10 comments | Permalink | Wednesday 15 January 2003 | Events
There are a few paragraphs about the site in today’s ‘Circuits’ section of The New York Times (half way down the page). And ABC 702 Sydney radio in Australia broadcast a recorded interview with me about Pepys’ Diary a week or so ago, although there are no online archives. Maybe that’s a good thing.
Be the first to comment | Permalink | Thursday 16 January 2003 | Press for this site
I created new pages for Hawly (an employee of George Downing along with Pepys) and Will’s (Pepys’ favourite drinking house). These seemed to be cropping up a lot so it made sense to stop any confusion and give them separate pages. If you have other nominations for their own pages, let me know.
1 comment | Permalink | Saturday 18 January 2003 | Housekeeping
Among many weblog entries about this site over the past few weeks, this one by Greg Elin is perhaps the most enthusiastic. Pointing this out might seem like I’m blowing my own trumpet, but that’s not my intention… the feature Elin raves most about is the annotations which, with a handful of exceptions, are not my work. The point is it’s the willingness of you to research and post useful information and links that makes this site, and the rest of the internet, quite so interesting. I was able to take some free text (from Project Gutenberg), publish it using free technology (such as PHP and Movable Type) and enable people to share knowledge. This is what it’s all about.
Be the first to comment | Permalink | Monday 20 January 2003 | Press for this site
I’ve added some links to the Further Reading page. First, Robert Louis Stevenson’s essay on Pepys at Bartelby.com (thanks Kirsten). And then some more reviews of Claire Tomalin’s Pepys biography (thanks David):
1 comment | Permalink | Monday 20 January 2003 | Pepys in the media
Please excuse a technical note… I made a few tweaks to the site today to try and handle a few glitches that had been pointed out to me. The basic font size had been measured in pixels, something I’d never done on a site before. I now remember why I hadn’t done this: Internet Explorer on Windows doesn’t allow the user to resize a page’s text if its size has been set in pixels. So it’s now set in ems. This may make the default text size look larger or smaller for you — if it’s completely unreadable let me know your browser and operating system.
I’ve also tidied things up a bit for those using versions of Netscape 4.x. It’s not pretty, but at least it’s readable! One problem though… I’ve managed to make the form for adding Annotations appear, but it still doesn’t work. The div below the textarea is mostly being displayed behind the textarea, rather than below it. This hides some text and on the Preview page the buttons don’t work. If you know CSS and can work out how to shift the text following the textarea down, do let me know! I was using Netscape 4.7 on Windows XP.
10 comments | Permalink | Monday 20 January 2003 | Housekeeping
On Tuesday 21st January at around 1.40pm GMT I’ll be interviewed live on BBC Radio London’s Robert Elms show about this site. It should be fun and you can listen live online. I don’t think it’s archived unfortunately.
3 comments | Permalink | Monday 20 January 2003 | Press for this site
Not only is the Public Record Office holding an exhibition of Pepys materials from February but so is the Guildhall Library (from Feb 10th to June 7th). The press release doesn’t give many more details about the show’s contents other than saying it contains “books, prints and documents.” (Thanks to my sister Sue for the tip!)
4 comments | Permalink | Wednesday 22 January 2003 | Events
The local newspaper from where I grew up has published a short piece about the site. The Witham and Braintree Times isn’t online in any useful form so here’s the article for your entertainment and my embarrassment:
Witham Viewpoint with Eve Sweeting
He may not have enjoyed history lessons at school but Phil Gyford, 31-year-old son of Witham historian Janet Gyford and her husband John, is now showing distinct signs of following in his mother’s footsteps.
Phil, a former pupil at Witham’s Chipping Hill, Templars and Rickstones Schools has devised an interactive website — The Diary of Samuel Pepys — which is proving a big hit.
Those logging on can enjoy a day by day entry from the diaries of Samuel Pepys, the famous 17th century diarist who lived in London and, besides recording more dramatic times such as the Great Fire of London, also noted how much turkey his family ate at Christmas and the fall-outs with his wife.
The site is proving as popular as the soaps. “Better than Emmerdale,” is one comment from a reader.”
Phil, a web designer, actually went to America to study the future, in which he took a masters degree.
Such is the interest, however, in his current look back to the past that he has been interviewed on both American and Australian radio and featured in the Washington Post as well as BBC News Online.
Phil welcomes questions and comments on each day’s entry.
Phil says: “I am attempting to keep the diary content as close to the original as the web format and the translations through Victorian editors and Project Gutenberg’s process allow.”
So far the Pepys Diaries are a mix of domestic and wider news.
It seems an entertaining and agreeable way of digesting the famous diaries in bite-sized chunks — and from what I’ve read so far I can quite see the site becoming as compulsive as Coronation Street.
If you want to long on it is: www.pepysdiary.com
4 comments | Permalink | Saturday 25 January 2003 | Press for this site
The Guardian has a Question and Answer with Claire Tomalin, the author nominated for a Whitbread Award for her Pepys biography. Strangely, the page doesn’t say when Tomalin will be fulfilling the Answering part of the deal, so you’d better rush over and ask your Questions now. Unfortunately you need to log in or register before you can submit questions, but don’t let that put you off; follow the “log in” link on the page to register. (Thanks for the tip mum!)
6 comments | Permalink | Saturday 25 January 2003 | Pepys in the media
Up to now we’ve been reading entries for January that I entered some time ago, and it’s now time for me to enter the next batch. So I’d like to know how people feel about the amount of links to People and Places pages. At the moment I create a new page if the 1893 edition has footnotes for an item, if a reader requests a page, or if it seems obvious to me that it might be useful.
Would you like more of them? While I could make every person and place into a link I don’t think this would necessarily be a good idea. We don’t know anything about some of the people and there may be little if anything to say about some of the places. If a lot of these pages have little content I can imagine one might get frustrated with clicking links that often end up with nothing at the end of them.
So, is the current amount of links about right? If you want more, any thoughts on how to judge when a new person or place deserves a page? Thanks for your thoughts.
18 comments | Permalink | Tuesday 28 January 2003 | Housekeeping
Not much more to say, other than here’s the BBC article on the subject. (Thanks Roger.)
7 comments | Permalink | Tuesday 28 January 2003 | Pepys in the media