One of the most famous men in English history, and arguably the world’s greatest diarist, Samuel Pepys was immeasurably talented, seemingly tireless in his work and limitless in his interests. He knew all the great men of his day, and corresponded with most of them.

It seems extraordinary, therefore, that no accessible edition of his letters has been published for over seventy years. Now Boydell & Brewer present Guy de la Bédoyère’s selection of letters written throughout Pepys’s long, varied and remarkable career….

The correspondence included here – including thirty letters never before published – represents the first selection of Pepys letters drawn from all possible sources to be published since 1933. Since the Diary does not cover this period, the letters enable the reader to follow Pepys's early career on the staff of the Earl of Sandwich, his rise to greatness as Secretary of the Admiralty, and his retirement after the Glorious Revolution. Along the way he fought battles with opponents of his naval reforms and enemies who tried to implicate him in the Popish Plot, while taking care of his various relatives and keeping up with an array of friends and acquaintances who included many of the great and famous of late-seventeenth-century England.

The letters have been chosen to reflect all these aspects of Pepys's varied and fascinating life. They are accompanied by a running commentary, biographies of persons mentioned, a glossary, a chronology, and an introduction that explains how the letters have survived and analyses how they were written.

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