10 February 2003

The Mirror has a brief story about Steve Coogan playing Samuel Pepys in a one-off drama as part of a BBC 2 series about “famous literary figures.” Filming is in the summer. For non-British readers, Steve Coogan is best known for his comedy character Alan Partridge, a TV presenter who falls on hard times and presents an early morning local radio show. It’s great stuff but his other work often doesn’t quite hit the mark (in my opinion).

28 January 2003

Not much more to say, other than here’s the BBC article on the subject. (Thanks Roger.)

25 January 2003

The Guardian has a Question and Answer with Claire Tomalin, the author nominated for a Whitbread Award for her Pepys biography. Strangely, the page doesn’t say when Tomalin will be fulfilling the Answering part of the deal, so you’d better rush over and ask your Questions now. Unfortunately you need to log in or register before you can submit questions, but don’t let that put you off; follow the “log in” link on the page to register. (Thanks for the tip mum!)

20 January 2003

I’ve added some links to the Further Reading page. First, Robert Louis Stevenson’s essay on Pepys at Bartelby.com (thanks Kirsten). And then some more reviews of Claire Tomalin’s Pepys biography (thanks David):

• The Atlantic review
• Daily Telegraph review
• Guardian review
• Independent review

5 January 2003

Claire Tomalin’s Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self is BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week from Monday 6th January and you can listen to it online here.