Annotations update
18 January 2013
It’s been a little while since my previous post about the new site, so here’s an update.
Site News
News about this site and other Pepys-related events.
Welcome to the new (unfinished) site
31 December 2012
Welcome to the new website, just in time for 1st January. The diary entries will be appearing each day on the front page from 11pm (London time) on 1st January 2013, starting with 1st January 1660. The RSS feed and daily emails should also start working again.
Annotations switched off
10 December 2012
I’m experimenting with a few things on the site, with the aim of starting it running again in the New Year. To make this easier for me — and because very few annotations have been posted recently — I’ve turned off the ability to post annotations for a while.
A new Pepys walk: Greenwich
18 July 2012
Glyn Thomas has previously worked on two walks which have been posted here, around the City of London, and Westminster. He has now updated both of these and added a third walk, around that other centre of Pepys’ diary life, Greenwich.
Site statistics 2012
5 July 2012
I promised several of you that I’d give a final update on statistics, now that the diary’s ended. It’s been two-and-a-half years since I last gave a detailed update, so let’s so what’s changed…
Family Tree v3
5 July 2012
I’ve give the the family tree a probably final update. I’d been planning to give it a tweak — filling in some of the post-diary dates, and adding a couple of people who appeared late in the diary — but I’ve also now added a lot more Montagus. There’s now a new chunk featuring the eminent family, Pepys’s distant relations, on the right-hand end. It’s quite a confusing family — there are several Edward Montagus for example — so having them displayed like this helps make things clearer!
Recent Press
3 June 2012
The end of the diary got a few mentions in the on- and offline media, and here’s a brief summary of it. I didn’t go looking for publicity because, although it feels like a big event, there didn’t seem much point attracting lots of new readers to the site just as it ends!
Thursday's entry will appear two hours earlier
29 May 2012
Usually diary entries appear at 11pm UK time, sort of simulating the idea that Pepys wrote it at the end of his day. I’m loath to break with this near decade-long tradition, but Thursday’s entry will appear two hours early, at 9pm UK time. This is so that readers in the UK are more likely to be able to read it “live”, should they wish to do so. I hope this doesn’t spoil the routine of anyone too much!
Belated improvements
29 May 2012
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been going through my neglected list of things on the site I’ve been meaning to fix or add. Better (very) late than never! Here’s what I’ve been doing:
What are your favourite diary moments?
20 May 2012
As we approach the end of the diary it would be great to read what your favourite moments from the diary are. Any particular phrases or events that have stuck in your head? Any especially memorable descriptions? If it’s a brief snippet, post it in a comment below, with a link to the diary entry. If you have an entire entry that you want to share, just post a link to it and tell us why you love it.
Pepys Commemoration Service, 25 May
20 May 2012
This coming Friday, 25 May, there’s a commemoration service at noon at St Olave’s church:
Roll Call. Say hello!
12 May 2012
Some time ago Laura K suggested we have a roll call for readers of the diary to say hello. This seems like a good time.
Expect more visitors this month
1 May 2012
As we approach the end of the diary there’s a chance this site will attract some publicity. I’m not going out of my way to get lots of coverage, but then I didn’t when the site started and there was quite a bit! I mention this because if there is publicity then we will have many more visitors to our friendly part of the web.
End of Diary Events Update
24 April 2012
Both the previous posts about end-of-diary events in London and Massachusetts have been updated, so I thought it might be worth highlighting those here.
Planning for 26th May in London
14 March 2012
As mentioned late last year we are planning to round off our journey through the diary with a small celebration in London on Saturday 26th May 2012. It’s only a couple of months away, so I’d like to get some idea of how many people will be coming.
Family Tree updated
13 February 2012
In case you like to keep an updated version of the Pepys Family Tree to hand, I’ve just made a couple of small updates to it. I’ve added Babs and Betty, daughters of Roger Pepys, and his new wife, Esther (all over on the far right). I’ve also added Elizabeth Pickering’s 1668 marriage to John Creed, which had gone unrecorded.
Letters between Pepys and Evelyn on the site
10 February 2012
I’ve just added a new section to the site, for letters to and from Samuel Pepys. It currently lists a selection of letters between Pepys and the era’s other major diarist, John Evelyn.
Recent Activity page is back
3 February 2012
I had a brainwave about how the Recent Activity page is generated and it seems to work. The page is now re-created every five minutes and seems to do so without keeping the database occupied for ages like it used to. Fingers crossed it’ll keep working like this from now on.
Recent Activity page out of action
2 February 2012
I’m afraid I’ve had to stop the Recent Activity page from updating again. The database queries that make these listings are very slow and they’re holding up other features of the site, such as posting annotations.
End of the Diary in Massachusetts
31 January 2012
For those unable to make it to the end-of-Diary gathering in London, but might be closer to Massachusetts, here’s something for you!