The Confessions of Samuel Pepys

Private Revelations from Britain's Most Famed Diarist

Guy de la Bédoyère

A remarkable collection of the most personal aspects of Samuel Pepys’ diaries, in celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of their publication.

The Diary of Samuel Pepys is the most celebrated personal journal in the English language.

Pepys's candid revelations as he forged his career as a civilian naval official in Restoration London have fascinated readers ever since the first selection was published in 1825. This book focuses on Pepys’s controversial private life and is geared for a contemporary readership by charting his varied and complex relationships with women. These included his wife, Elizabeth—whom he both loved and treated abominably—their domestic servants, the mistresses whom he secretly visited in Westminster and Deptford, the great ladies of the court whom he ogled, and the actresses and other female friends whose company he delighted in and combined with casual flirting and petting. All these he recounted in shorthand, often disguising the more salacious occasions in his own cryptic Franco-Latino polyglot or with a primitive system of extraneous consonants.

Most of these controversial entries were excised from nineteenth century editions, but all are featured here in completely new transcriptions—with Pepys’s secret code translated—following fresh forensic examination from the original shorthand diary. The Confessions of Samuel Pepys also reveals how all previous transcribers of the diary, as well as many of his biographers, have deliberately avoided this controversial element of Pepys’s reputation.

Guy de la Be´doye`re has written a large several books on the Roman world, including Gladius; Domina: The Women Who Made Imperial Rome; Praetorian; and The Real Lives of Roman Britain for Yale University Press. He is well known to a wide audience because of the fifteen years he participated in Britain’s Channel 4’s archaeology series, Time Team. Guy is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and is an accredited lecturer of the Arts Society. He lives in Britain.

Buy it now in print:

Buy it now in ebook:

Endorsements & Reviews

Praise for Guy de la Bédoyère:

"A scrupulous yet accessible history of ancient Egypt under the 18th Dynasty. Complemented by striking illustrations and valuable appendices, this impressive survey will be welcomed by ancient history buffs.” Publishers Weekly

“Guy de la Bédoyère collects pretty much every fact known about what it was like to be in the military arm of the Roman Empire.” Thomas E. Ricks, The New York Review of Books

“A highly successful introduction to the life of the Roman soldier. Making use of a wide range of sources, from stone inscriptions to colorful anecdotes, de la Bédoyère’s informative and readable book offers real immediacy to readers.” Clifford Ando, University of Chicago

“A necessary work for scholars of Roman history, but will also prove interesting and informative reading for the armchair historian.” New York Military Affairs Review

“An illuminating and highly readable narrative about the role of women at the center of imperial Rome—fascinating and important.” Lesley Adkins, author of Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome

"The dramatic story of the soldiers at the heart of the Roman empire. Lively and full of insight, de la Bedoyere traces the history of the praetorians and the emperors they served, murdered and made, through three hundred years of intrigue and drama.” Adrian Goldsworthy, author of Philip and Alexander: Kings and Conquerors

“A lively and up-to-date history of the Praetorian Guard, the anti-coup divisions of the Roman emperors from Augustus to Constantine. De la Bédoyère tells their story with clarity and panache, and his book can be most warmly recommended both to aspiring tyrants and the ordinary armchair historian.” The Sunday Times (London)