A lively, well researched biography. Many who know the Diary, full or abridged, forget that it only starts in January 1660, by which time Pepys, like most others in Whitehall, was prudently turning his coat Royalist. Claire Tomalin pieces together the largely undocumented pre-Diary years both of Pepys' life and the nation's politics, including his approving presence at the king's execution, and his post-Diary years dogged by accusations of crypto-Catholicism. Recommended.
(Michael Fitzgerald-Lombard - bwl 34 April 2006 ) |
