Some of the actual entries of Samuel Pepys’ (1633-1703) diary are fairly humdrum, even if there is no reason to doubt their credibility. The entry for Friday 25 September 1663, for instance, said he slept in, then went to the office. In the afternoon he went out on a boat to Deptford with two friends, but it rained heavily, complete with thunder and lightning, so they stayed indoors. Then one of his friends, the other one already at home in Deptford, came back into central London by boat. He had dinner, then went back to the office to what he would have done if he hadn’t been called out to Deptford, then went home again and went to bed.
This book, written in the first person, is easy to read, though the diary entries are considerably longer than one might expect. Conversations are recalled, in their entirety, word for word, which made it difficult to believe this was a ‘diary’ at face value: Jewers’ Pepys was, the reader is effectively asked to assume, able to recall exactly who said what to whom in various conversations from morning until night. On top of his day job, Pepys has duties which he must undertake in the service of Charles II. The length and depth of the diary entries don’t quite fit the context: he is too busy to keep up with both his jobs, but not too busy to write several lengthy diary entries on a daily basis.
There is about as much action packed into each of Pepys’ days as there might be in the lives of characters in a soap opera – that is, so much happens that it is almost implausible. A mix of the professional and the personal, there are details about Pepys’ home life as well as the murder investigation he is undertaking. That a review of this murder mystery book appears on a theatre website is because, in a slightly contrived way, Pepys’ work on His Majesty’s service led him to Theatre Royal Drury Lane, at least as far as the narrative in this book is concerned. In what almost felt like a diversion on the murder mystery, there was plenty of what I can only assume is meticulously researched detail on the workings of the theatre in the years immediately following the Restoration.
Those sections are perhaps of most interest to lovers of the theatre – the brief rehearsal periods, the manner in which management treated cast and crew were treated, fire hazards, and so on – with Pepys’ work outside the theatre used as a backdrop, as it were, for not knowing anything about the theatre, such that the detailed descriptions of theatrical life came across as fresh findings.
Descriptions of the London of the day, including routes taken by Pepys by foot and horseback, are as detailed as they are in Charles Dickens’ novels (I have met people who have navigated their way through parts of London based on Dickens’ descriptions). A very readable book, it’s undoubtedly written for twenty-first century audiences, given the amount of space given to Pepys’ wife Elisabeth and Drury Lane favourite Nell Gwyn, amongst other women. A substantial and satisfying read.
Review by Chris Omaweng
January 1670. London is enduring its worst winter in decades, and Nell Gwyn is about to make her scandalous return to the stage.
Called upon to investigate the brutal murder of a libertine aristocrat, Pepys discovers that the dead man is connected to a mysterious visitor in the most shocking way possible. The investigation leads Pepys from the glamorous world of royal mistresses to the new theatre on Drury Lane.
Filled with real historical characters including the actress Nell Gwyn, the playwright Aphra Behn and many of King Charles II’s mistresses, in Seething Lane Jack Jewers brings Britain’s most infamous diary back to life for a modern audience.
By Jack Jewers
Available in hardback, eBook and audiobook
