Samuel Pepys was born in 1633 in Huntingdon, and educated at Huntingdon Grammar School, the site of which is now Huntingdon Museum. He then attended St Paul’s School in London before graduating from Magdalene College, Cambridge, in 1653.
He became the first secretary of the Admiralty, overseeing radical reforms of the Royal Navy, as well as serving as an MP, President of the Royal Society, and Master of Trinity House. Despite being of modest parentage (his uncle was a butcher), his friends included Sir Christopher Wren, Sir Isaac Newton, John Evelyn, Sir Godfrey Kneller, and John Dryden. Charles II personally dictated to him the story of his escape after the Battle of Worcester, and he was a witness to James II’s will, before James fled.
Between 1660 and 1670, he kept a diary which is now one of the primary sources for the history of that colourful period, as well as being an enduring literary classic.
Derek Turner is the author of Edge of England: Landfall in Lincolnshire, which was called by the Guardian “a wonderfully rich mixture of nature writing, memoir, history and local lore.” He is also the author of several novels, and writes on history, landscape and literature for journals like the Spectator, Country Life and the Irish Times. His poetry has been published in Australia’s Quadrant, and elsewhere. His website is www.derek-turner.com
