Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
For anyone within reach of Huntingdon, there’s a new play on at All Saints’ Church on 15th and 16th October which will probably be of interest to anyone reading this. Here’s the blurb from the flyer for The Winding Stair: The Rise and Rise of Edward Mountagu:
The fascinating and remarkable story of Edward Mountagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich, and his substantial part in the Restoration of the Monarchy is told by Mountagu himself and his celebrated cousin, Samuel Pepys, as they reflect on the historic events of 350 years ago.
Mountagu, the young master of Hinchingbrooke House, had risen to prominence under his hero and mentor, Oliver Cromwell, so it may seem surprising that he was one of the principal architects of the Restoration, who personally brought Charles II back to his native land from the continent.
But, more honours and more successes followed after 1660, many of them chronicled by Pepys himself.
Mountagu’s story is one of courage and betrayal, of genius and good luck, and of deep family affection at a time of this nation’s greatest turmoil. And it is told by two of Huntingdon’s most experienced professionals — Michael Burrell as Mountagu, and James Blatch as Pepys. It also features a song written for the occasion by local singer/songwriter, Bondy.
The Winding Stair has been researched, devised and written by Michael Burrell, who also wrote community plays to mark Huntingdon 800 and the 400th anniversary of Cromwell’s birth in 1999 (Lord of the Fens). It has been commissioned by Huntingdonshire District Council.
The show starts at 7.30pm and tickets are £7.50 (£6 concessions) from The Card Gallery (presumably in Huntingdon) or by card on 01480 388245.
If you go along, do post your thoughts below!
Be the first to comment | Permalink | Monday 4 October 2010 | Pepys in the media
I’m sorry to be writing this, but Keith Wright, who posted annotations on this site under the name Bradford, passed away unexpectedly on 13th October. Keith had been active here since the start of the diary and we’ll greatly miss his contributions.
Sadly, Keith suffered a complication of his blood pressure medicine on Wednesday which resulted in a cardiac arrest and the doctors were unable to revive him. I’m sure our thoughts are with his friends and family.
Although I exchanged a few nice emails with Keith over the years I regretfully know little about him other than that he often proof-read books.
If you have any memories of Keith from the past few years, please do share them with us below.
UPDATE: Jeannine Kerwin sent this PDF which the Library of America (for whom Keith did much work) has kindly allowed us to post here. It is an article about Keith from their newsletter from two years ago. (22 October 2010)
19 comments | Permalink | Friday 15 October 2010 | Housekeeping