You might remember back in May I posted about some creative writing workshops inspired by the diary, run by Kate Loveman. You can now read the stories that were written, for free.
Here’s the email Kate sent to the discussion group:
A few months ago, I ran some creative writing workshops based on Pepys’s diary – thank you to everyone from the group who got in touch about those! As a result, an online collection of stories, Other Lives in Samuel Pepys’s Diary, is now available to download for free here. (This link will take you to the University of Leicester’s publications site)
The writers produced lively, witty and thought-proving pieces, based on three figures mentioned in the diary. These are Jane Birch; Mingo, the young Black man who worked for Sir William Batten; and an unnamed Deaf boy whom Pepys encountered at a party (one of my favourite entries in the diary).
The collection features an introduction to each figure, followed by the imaginative responses from our authors. As in Pepys’s diary, some of the stories have what TV announcers would call ‘adult themes’ and ‘offensive language’.
One of the writers, Elizabeth Uter, who is an actor and voice-over artist, has also recorded her story about Mingo. You can listen to a recording here via the university site.
This collection is part of a wider project I’m running about the history of Pepys’s diary, with the University of Leicester & the Museum of London. If you’d like to know more, there’s a project website: pepyshistory.le.ac.uk
I hope you enjoy the collection!
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