Margaret Willes, formerly publisher at the National Trust, is author of several books, including Reading Matters and The Gardens of the British Working Class. She lives in London.
“Two centuries on, this scholarly and readable book brings the two
men together again. The result, the biographical equivalent of a
buddy film, is both entertaining and unexpectedly revealing about
the extraordinary times they lived in.”—Andrew Taylor, Times
(London)
"Ms. Willes brings Evelyn and Pepys fully and vibrantly to life.
She makes the reader feel their foibles, their virtues, their
pleasure and their pain; and on almost every page there is a detail
to be thought about, recorded, relayed. It is a fitting tribute to
two figures who so cherished curiosity—and who did so much to
contribute to the curiosity of their age."—Economist
“Willes’s book is produced by Yale to its usual high standard,
sumptuously illustrated and beautifully printed. Those connoisseurs
of book production Pepys and Evelyn would have handled and read it
with pleasure and added it to their own collections.”—Richard
Chartres, Church Times
“Willes’s engaging, lavishly illustrated book. . . works well,
replacing chronology with a close-up history of the dynamic,
turbulent world of Restoration England.”—Barbara Taylor,
Guardian
“Our two most famous chroniclers, the prematurely curmudgeonly John
Evelyn and debauched, upwardly mobile Samuel Pepys . . . This is an
excellent book to give wider context on the lives and times of
Pepys and Evelyn, and as a starting point to explore London life
during this period."—Stephen Coulson, The Lady
“Excellent and erudite.”—Gerald Isaaman, Camden New Journal
“Margaret Willes is an elegant and perceptive writer . . .This
exercise in contrast and compare illuminates both.”—Ysenda Maxtone
Graham, Country Life
“Excellent”—William Baker, The Year’s Work in English Studies
"Margaret Willes paints an increasingly detailed - and always
fascinating - picture of seventeenth-century London. Both Samuel
Pepys's frank Diary and John Evelyn's anxiously tidied account of
the first years of the Restoration remain vivid today. Willes's
book is a 'must' for anyone interested in people, or London, or the
growth of society after the King returned."—Liza Picard, author of
Restoration London.
"Glorious! Not only does Margaret Willes shed bright new light on
two of the 17th century's most endearing characters, she recreates
the worlds they inhabited with remarkable elegance and
clarity."—Adrian Tinniswood, author of His Invention So
Fertile: A Life of Christopher Wren.
"This is a well-researched, illuminating and enjoyable book. Evelyn
and Pepys lived through some of the most dramatic events in English
history: regicide, plague, the Great Fire and revolution. These
great diarists have left us unique and valuable insights into their
world, when advances were being made in scientific thought,
gardening, medicine, and international trade, despite the perils of
the times. This book captures that energy and weaves details drawn
from the writings of both men into a colourful and convincing
panorama of seventeenth-century London."—Dr.
Margarette Lincoln, Visiting Research Fellow at Goldsmiths,
University of London and Curator Emeritus at the National Maritime
Museum, Greenwich
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