Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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 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
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
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
The Mirror has a brief story about Steve Coogan playing Samuel Pepys in a one-off drama as part of a BBC 2 series about “famous literary figures.” Filming is in the summer. For non-British readers, Steve Coogan is best known for his comedy character Alan Partridge, a TV presenter who falls on hard times and presents an early morning local radio show. It’s great stuff but his other work often doesn’t quite hit the mark (in my opinion).
11 comments | Permalink | Monday 10 February 2003 | Pepys in the media
A while back I pointed to a place at The Guardian where you could post questions for Pepys biographer Claire Tomalin to answer. This week she’s answered them. (Thanks Kim.)
She says she’s tried to use this site in the past but has been “frustrated by the site crashing.” I’d love to know what browser and operating system she’s using, and what exactly happens, as I thought I’d squashed all such bugs weeks ago. If anyone knows how to get in touch with her…
19 comments | Permalink | Thursday 6 March 2003 | Pepys in the media
Michael Filiksy let me know about a show that might be of interest. He says:
“This week the BBC Radio 3 show “Music Restored” presented a celebration of Pepys’ 300th death anniversary. The program(me) includes music of Pepys’ London (Purcell, Locke, Playford, etc.) interspersed with the diarist’s words read by an actor. There seems to be a gap of a minute or so at about 3 minutes, but stay with it and be rewarded. The commentary is by Lucie Skeaping, the host. BBC seems to archive these programs for one week only, so tune in before Thursday 1 May.”
You can listen to the show and read the playlist.
2 comments | Permalink | Monday 28 April 2003 | Pepys in the media
Ed emailed me and wanted to ask everyone about their experiences of audio recordings of the diary. As this is currently the only place to discuss this kind of thing, it’s over to Ed:
I’d like to ask what people think about the recently released 4-CD set of selections from the Diary read by Michel Maloney (Amazon UK) as compared with the earlier 6 audio cassette set by Kenneth Branagh (Amazon US, UK). I find the Maloney reading to be (among other things) devoid of any sense of humanity whatsoever — and if SP was anything he was human. Branagh has plenty to answer for to be sure, but his reading of Pepys is not one of them. I don’t know who Maloney is but to me they picked the wrong guy. Too bad, as I had been looking forward to it since it was annouced late last year.
So, has anyone else heard these, or any other recordings? Any thoughts?
8 comments | Permalink | Monday 19 May 2003 | Pepys in the media
Keith kindly pointed out an article in the Times Literary Supplement by Ferdinand Mount, author of Jem (and Sam) (Amazon US, UK). It is mainly a review of London’s National Portrait Gallery Pepys exhibition but also has interesting things to say about Pepys and some of his associates. I fear the link may only work until Thursday though, so be quick…
2 comments | Permalink | Tuesday 27 May 2003 | Pepys in the media
A quick round-up of news and queries from my inbox…
Rafael was wondering where he could see an example of the shorthand Pepys used, based on Shelton’s. If anyone has any thoughts, ideally but not exclusively online, then post below.
Roger noticed the BBC has a drama about Charles II coming up: “Four-part drama about King Charles II with Rufus Sewell and Rupert Graves.”
He also points out that Claire Tomalin’s Pepys biography is short-listed for the BBC Four Samuel Jonhson Prize for Non-fiction. Her book is profiled on the digital-only UK TV channel on Wednesday 4th June at 7.50pm (sorry for the short notice!), with an hour long show about all contenders on Friday at 8.30pm.
Finally, I noticed that Tomalin has won another award, the Samuel Pepys Award, given by the Pepys Club to a book that makes the greatest contribution to the understanding of Pepys. The Guardian called it “a candidate for the least surprising award result in history.”
Be the first to comment | Permalink | Tuesday 3 June 2003 | Pepys in the media
A quick round-up of news and queries from my inbox…
Rafael was wondering where he could see an example of the shorthand Pepys used, based on Shelton’s. If anyone has any thoughts, ideally but not exclusively online, then please post below.
Roger noticed the BBC has a drama about Charles II coming up: “Four-part drama about King Charles II with Rufus Sewell and Rupert Graves.”
He also points out that Claire Tomalin’s Pepys biography is short-listed for the BBC Four Samuel Jonhson Prize for Non-fiction. Her book is profiled on the digital-only UK TV channel on Wednesday 4th June at 7.50pm (sorry for the short notice!), with an hour long show about all contenders on Friday at 8.30pm.
Finally, I noticed that Tomalin has won another award, the Samuel Pepys Award, given by the Pepys Club to a book that makes the greatest contribution to the understanding of Pepys. The Guardian called it “a candidate for the least surprising award result in history.”
7 comments | Permalink | Tuesday 3 June 2003 | Pepys in the media
Tina emailed me to point out that Claire Tomalin’s recent biography of Pepys is available at Amazon UK as part of their “3 paperbacks for £12” promotion (plus postage and packing). The small print reveals that you don’t have to buy three books — you can just buy one for £3.99 (plus p+p). Crafty!
2 comments | Permalink | Wednesday 18 June 2003 | Pepys in the media
The Telegraph has an article about a million word journal kept by a puritan minister from 1677 to 1691. A relatively small part, 40,000 words, was, like Pepys’ diary, written in shorthand which has now been interpreted. It’s due to be published in 2005.
(This isn’t strictly Pepys related, and I was going to post this only to the discussion group, but I thought it might be of interest to everyone!)
4 comments | Permalink | Friday 29 August 2003 | Pepys in the media
Roger Arbor writes: “Radio 4 is running this week excerpts from the life of Robert Hooke… later in the diary we will meet him, and Samuel writes of how impressed he was with him.”
Lisa Jardine’s The Curious Life of Robert Hooke is being broadcast each day this week on Book of the Week at 9.45am and repeated at 12.30am. You can also hear broadcasts from the past week on the Book of the Week website.
1 comment | Permalink | Tuesday 30 September 2003 | Pepys in the media
A couple of people have pointed out that the (fictional) diary of Pepys’ wife, Elizabeth Pepys, is being serialised on BBC Radio 7. I’m not sure that you can listen to previous episodes, but if you check the schedule you can hopefully work out when others are broadcast. You can listen live on the site.
Also pointed out on the discussion list, and again courtesy of the BBC, there’s a new drama called Charles II starting this month. For those without BBC1, you can at least see some clips on the website.
Finally, Radio Wales interviewed me last week about this site for their Mousemat show. You can hear it on the show’s site for a few more days. (I haven’t heard it myself yet…).
1 comment | Permalink | Monday 10 November 2003 | Pepys in the media
Earlier in the year there was news of a dramatisation of Pepys starring Steve Coogan. It will be starting on BBC 2 on 16th December. There’s a BBC press release from September about it, but not much else that I can find on their site.
Feel free to post comments about the show below, rather than in the daily annotation entries, or in the discussion list, which is probably a better forum for discussion. Thanks.
18 comments | Permalink | Saturday 6 December 2003 | Pepys in the media
Vincent Bell writes to point out a discussion on BBC Radio 4’s Start the Week that explores attitudes to sex and gender in a period close to Pepys’. Vincent says:
The last ten minutes of the 45 minute program was a pretty intellectual discussion between Andrew Marr and Tim Hitchcock on sex before and after the 1690/1770 period — essentially saying that the framework or world view of what it was to be male and female changed during this period due to a greater understanding / changing view of human anatomy… anyway this last ten minutes refers to Pepys diary briefly and I think perhaps puts Pepys’ ‘petting’ behaviour into perspective.
You can listen to the show on the site, although I haven’t had a chance to hear it myself yet. From Monday onwards you’ll need to follow the link to ‘Previous week’ or ‘5 January 2004’ under ‘Previous Programmes’ on the right hand side of the page to get the relevant show.
Perhaps the Background Info section could do with some pages around these topics? If you think so, I’d love to hear your thoughts for how to divide the field up. Sensible suggestions only please!
1 comment | Permalink | Thursday 8 January 2004 | Pepys in the media
Two items from the Pepys’ Diary email list:
First, for those in the UK, BBC FOUR has a programme called Mr Pepys’s Diary on Monday 18th January at 10pm:
Clarissa Dickson Wright, Tony Benn and Sir Richard Eyre join Claire Tomalin and other Pepys devotees to bring you the sensuous and extraordinary world of his diaries. Gourmet tastes mingle with adulterous liaisons, naval bureaucracy and the Great Fire, as Pepys records his detailed observations of London society. The documentary explores how this first great English diary continues to chime with modern readers’ lives.
I assume it will be on iPlayer after the event, but again for UK residents only.
Second, a company called Aimer Media has just released a 59p/$0.99 app for the iPhone and iPod Touch based on the diary (iTunes link). It currently only includes the text for 1660 but they’re looking for ideas on how to make it more interesting.
2 comments | Permalink | Friday 15 January 2010 | Pepys in the media
The BBC have a new radio sitcom in development called Pauline Pepys’ Dowry, with the pilot episode set to be recorded this week.
There doesn’t seem to be much information around. The BBC’s site for getting tickets to recordings says this:
Olivia Colman, David Mitchell, Sharon Horgan, Katherine Parkinson, Tom Hollander and Rebekah Staton star in a new situation comedy by Amy Shindler and Beth Chalmers, produced by Gareth Edwards.
London, 1660. Meet Pauline Pepys, less famous sister of Samuel. Her love life is in tatters, her sister-in-law wants her to move out of the spare room, and her best friend is her worst enemy. Oh, and there’s a nasty spot of plague about.
A new situation comedy about some age old problems.
I’m guessing that Pall will be played by Olivia Colman (Mark’s (ex-)girlfriend/wife Sophie in Peep Show) and Samuel is going to be played by David Mitchell (Peep Show’s Mark and comedy panel-show regular) which, I think, could work quite well. All in all it sound like it could be fun.
No idea about when the show will be broadcast.
2 comments | Permalink | Saturday 19 June 2010 | Pepys in the media
Two big bits of news if you’re a German speaker, or know someone who is who might also be interested in Pepys…
First, Haffmans & Tolkemitt have published the first complete translation of the Latham & Matthews edition of the diary in a nine-volume box set. The description says it includes a “companion”, but it’s only nine volumes, so I’m not sure if there’s also a complete index. Still, that’s a lot of translation!
Second, Manfred Zeller has also begun translating and publishing the diary and posting it online, day-by-day in the same fashion as PepysDiary.com. It will be interesting to compare each day in the two languages (when we’ve worked out the best method, I’ll probably be linking to each day from this site).
So, pass this on if you have some German friends who might enjoy Sam’s world, or if you fancy brushing up your German by reading something familiar…
Be the first to comment | Permalink | Tuesday 31 August 2010 | Pepys in the media
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
On Friday 18th February 2011 I’m going to be talking about Samuel Pepys and this website at The Story, a one-day conference in London about stories and storytelling. I haven’t spoken much in public about the site, so I’m looking forward to it, despite being in awe of some of the other speakers.
I’ll probably look at things like: What it’s like to tell and experience a story that takes place over such a long period of time; Why Sam’s diary is still interesting today; Fleshing out a narrative with extra information; How readers of the story can make it a more interesting and enjoyable experience for each other; Different formats for a story of this scale (like Twitter). If you have any thoughts on this aspect of the diary, do let me know. I don’t know if the audio or video will be online after the event, but if so I’ll post it up here.
Also, and more imminently, I’m going to be reading out some Christmas-related snippets of Sam’s diary during the first broadcast of Radio Roundabout. The show will be streaming online from 3-5pm GMT on Friday 17th December 2010. I’m not sure it’ll be worth tuning in only to hear these brief excerpts of the diary but hopefully the whole show will be fun.
2 comments | Permalink | Wednesday 15 December 2010 | Pepys in the media
A year ago I mentioned in passing that there was an iPhone app in which you could read the first year of Samuel Pepys’ diary. Aimer Media have now updated the app, to include another year (1661 as well as 1660), plus a few new features. From the blurb:
New reading engine allows night reading and smoother page turning.
Also included are enhanced and additional sharing options for email, twitter and Facebook, in particular by including links to PepysDiary.com
Accessibility has been improved with correct reading via VoiceOver of entries and buttons.
So, if you have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, and want a bit more Sam in your life, head over to the app store, where it costs £1.19, which I’m guessing is $1.99 in the US. (Disclosure: The plan is that a small cut from these fees will come my way.)
I particularly like the parental guidance for the app:
Rated 12+ for the following:
Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes
Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humor
Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References
Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content or Nudity
Oh Sam!
Be the first to comment | Permalink | Monday 10 January 2011 | Pepys in the media
Last weekend, at Culture Hack Day in London, Matthew Somerville and Clare Lovell made Pepys’ Shows. It’s a very simple fun thing: it shows a quote from Pepys’ diary about a random play, with a link to the relevant play at Matthew’s site Theatricalia. Click “freshen anew” to see another one of Sam’s mini reviews. Very nice.
1 comment | Permalink | Wednesday 19 January 2011 | Pepys in the media
The 20th January 2011 issue of the London Review of Books features two mentions of Samuel Pepys. Unfortunately, both are only available online to subscribers, but here are a couple of interesting quotes.
The first is about changes in coinage in the late 17th century:
William [III, Prince of Orange] had been dealt a difficult hand. The national stock of sixpences, shillings, half-crowns and crowns fell into two groups, the old and the new, each with a total face value of around ten million pounds. The old coins, dating from before 1662, had been made by brawny ‘master moneyers’ in the Mint workshops at the Tower of London, chopping slices from a silver rod and striking an image on both sides using a hammer and die. Apart from being easy to counterfeit, these hammered coins had become seriously degraded, partly through ordinary use (many were more than a century old) and partly through deliberate tampering: the manufacturing process left a fringe beyond the imprint of the die, and anyone with clippers or a file could shave a little silver off a hammered coin. By the 1690s, most old coins had lost about a third of their original substance.
In 1662 the Royal Mint went over to a new method of manufacture. Samuel Pepys, who was one of the first to make a tour of the new workshops at the Tower, was enchanted by his glimpse of a pioneering form of mass production. He watched perfectly uniform discs of assayed silver pouring out of horse-powered presses; he saw them locked into machines that engraved a pattern on the edge and added the defiant legend decus et tutamen (‘ornament and safeguard’ – milled coins would be proof against clipping and filing); and he saw them slipped under mechanical hammers that struck deep impressions on both sides with a clarity and precision that the strongest old-style moneyer could never have matched. ‘They say that this way is more charge to the king than the old way,’ Pepys wrote, ‘but it is neater, freer from clipping or counterfeiting … and speedier.’
The new British coins, beautifully minted with a full measure of fine silver, were a source of national pride; but they were also a national folly. They were harder to counterfeit than the old ones, but just as easy to melt down, either to forge old-style coins at a higher face value, or to create bullion that could be sold overseas at a premium. The Mint set an extra trap for itself by issuing a run of high-value coins struck not from silver but from the finest African gold, popularly known as guineas. They were originally meant to be worth 20 shillings, but they had no explicit denomination and were soon trading at 21 or 22. By the time William was pleading for cash to pay his troops in Flanders, guineas were worth 30 shillings, offering a mute but implacable commentary on the value of the British coinage. It was a hard problem; but something had to be done.
Here’s the diary entry in which Pepys is impressed by the new techniques. There’s a bit more, in which John Locke insists that coins have an intrinsic, “natural” value due to their silver content, rather than the purely symbolic value we acknowledge currency to have these days, but that’s probably a big enough quote already. It’s from a review of Thomas Levenson’s Newton and the Counterfeiter by Jonathan Rée.
For completeness, the other good Pepys-mentioning article was this review of Ted McCormick’s William Petty and the Ambitions of Political Arithmetic by Steven Shapin, about the polymath, Petty, who designed a kind of catamaran, the Experiment in the 1660s:
The ship was an experiment in science, technology and entrepreneurship. No one had ever seen such a vessel; it violated the conventions of the shipwright’s art; and among the knowledgeable it was generally an object of ridicule and opposition. There was, Petty acknowledged, ‘scarce a good word for it’ from anyone in the business. Most experts thought it wouldn’t work, and some worried that, in the unlikely event it did, it would be a technology too far. Samuel Pepys, the Navy Board’s clerk of the acts, was a supporter, while the master shipwright Anthony Deane said Petty’s design ‘must needs prove a folly’. The navy commissioner Peter Pett told Pepys that the double-hulled ship was ‘the most dangerous thing in the world’: if it was successful, the secret would get out, and it would be the ruin of English trade and sea power. The Dutch, with whom England was about to fight the second instalment of a series of naval wars, might use the shallow-draught ship to sail right up the Thames and lay London waste.
On 13th February 1665, Pepys calls the ship “a brave roomy vessel.” The whole article is well worth a read.
Do drop me a line if you happen to come across any other Pepys-related snippets around the place that could be highlighted here.
Be the first to comment | Permalink | Wednesday 2 February 2011 | Pepys in the media
The Telegraph has an article about the house in Brampton, Cambridgeshire, to which Sam hoped to retire, as it is up for sale. The article probably doesn’t contain much new to those of you who have been reading the diary, but it’s interesting to see a couple of pictures of the place.
Pepys House is for sale freehold for £450,000. If that sounds low for a four-bedroom, Grade II house, with a large garden within commuting distance of London, there is a slight snag. The property is held by a trust set up by the Pepys Club. The lease, originally for 99 years, does not expire until 2028. While the lease cannot be extended, you may not get vacant possession for 17 years.
You can also view the estate agents’ property listing of the house. It dates back to 1590, and “was almost doubled in size in 1725, extended again in 1927 and now includes 4 bedrooms and 3 receptions.”
Be the first to comment | Permalink | Tuesday 29 March 2011 | Pepys in the media
A brief amusement for you… On Twitter, @lili_bird asked @wesingyourtweet to sing one of @samuelpepys’ tweets. Apparently they sing tweets on request. And here’s the video of their brief sung version of one of Sam’s more uneventful tweets. Thanks all!
Be the first to comment | Permalink | Wednesday 13 April 2011 | Pepys in the media
The BBC Radio 4 show, Woman’s Hour is soon going to be featuring a drama based on Samuel Pepys’ diary. There will be five 15 minute episodes, broadcast at 10.45am (UK time) from Monday 15th to Friday 19th August. Here’s the press release from this page:
Samuel Pepys was 26 in January 1660, when he decided to record his daily life and innermost thoughts. Kris Marshall stars in this new adaptation of his diaries by Hattie Naylor.
Two years after a life-threatening operation to remove a bladder stone Pepys is feeling pretty well – despite having a lot on his mind.
He’s behind with his rent, he goes out too often, and drinks too much. He lies awake worrying about work and, despite being happily married, can’t keep his hands off other women.
For the next 10 years, in his secret diary, Samuel Pepys faithfully records the day’s events, and confesses his innermost thoughts.
He reveals what people in the 17th century ate, wore, did for fun and what they expected of marriage and of love affairs.
Hattie Naylor’s new adaptation features Katharine Jakeways as Samuel Pepys’s wife, Elizabeth.
Producer/Kate McAll for the BBC
I expect it will be available after broadcast on the BBC iPlayer but I imagine this will only be for UK listeners.
6 comments | Permalink | Thursday 4 August 2011 | Pepys in the media
A few weeks ago I met Regan Hutchins near Seething Lane and he recorded us chatting about Pepys for Culture File on the Irish radio station RTE Lyric FM.
The interview was broadcast on 2nd December and you can listen to it as an MP3 here.
2 comments | Permalink | Tuesday 13 December 2011 | Pepys in the media