Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) rose from a humble background as a tailor’s son to become a naval official who modernized the Royal Navy. Yet he is most famous for the private diary he kept between 1660 and 1669.

Written in shorthand, the journal serves as an unparalleled primary source, providing vivid eyewitness accounts of defining moments like the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London. Its enduring significance lies in Pepys’s startling honesty, as he captured both the grand politics of the Stuart Restoration and the intimate details of his own daily life.