This historical biography reveals how the famous diarist of Restoration England used his professional position to act as a sexual predator. Samuel Pepys is popularly known as the founder of the modern navy, a member of the Royal Society and, most of all, as a unique and frank diarist. Less well known is that he was a serial sexual offender by modern standards; a voyeur, a groper, and a rapist. Set against the London society of Charles II’s restoration, and extensively using Pepys’ own words, this book concerns his numerous extramarital affairs. It demonstrates how he used his position of power and influence to advance the careers of his subordinates—in return for the sexual favors of their wives. With his own descriptions, translated from the strange mix of languages and the seventeenth-century shorthand he used to camouflage the content, the reader witnesses in graphic detail how Pepys set about achieving his lascivious objectives – on occasion resorting to physical force where persuasion or bribery failed. Whether she be wife, daughter, mother, or humble maidservant, no woman was safe from his rapacious sexual appetite.

Samuel Pepys is popularly known as the founder of the modern navy, a member of the Royal Society and most of all, as a unique and frank diarist. Less well known is the fact that he was a serial sexual offender by modern standards; a voyeur, a groper and a rapist. Set against the London society of Charles II's restoration, and extensively using Pepys' own words, this book concerns his numerous extramarital affairs, often using his professional status and position of influence to advance the careers of his subordinates, in return for the sexual favors of their wives. With his own very frank descriptions, translated from the strange mix of languages and the seventeenth century shorthand he used to camouflage the content, the reader witnesses in often very graphic detail how Pepys set about achieving his lascivious objectives - on occasion resorting to physical force where persuasion or bribery failed. Whether she be wife, daughter, mother or humble maidservant, no woman was safe from his rapacious sexual appetite. This book shows the reader a little known, dark and sometimes very disturbing aspect of Samuel Pepys' character, one which even in his own day, he would not have wanted to be publicly aired.

"Samuel Pepys is popularly known as the founder of the modern navy, a member of the Royal Society and most of all, as a unique and frank diarist. Less well known is the fact that he was a serial sexual offender by modern standards; a voyeur, a groper and a rapist. Set against the London society of Charles II s restoration, and extensively using Pepys own words, this book concerns his numerous extra-marital affairs, often using his professional status and position of influence to advance the careers of his subordinates, in return for the sexual favours of their wives. With his own very frank descriptions, translated from the strange mix of languages and the seventeenth century shorthand he used to camouflage the content, the reader witnesses in often very graphic detail how Pepys set about achieving his lascivious objectives on occasion resorting to physical force where persuasion or bribery failed. Whether she be wife, daughter, mother or humble maidservant, no woman was safe from his rapacious sexual appetite. This book shows the reader a little known, dark and sometimes very disturbing aspect of Samuel Pepys character, one which even in his own day, he would not have wanted to be publicly aired."--

Today's parents are increasingly replacing nursery rhymes with the latest pop songs, and fairy tales - now thought too scary for little ones - with cute stories about farmyard animals and talking trains.Until recently, weird tales of fairy curses and flesh-eating ogres were considered suitable bedtime reading. And the strange-sounding and sometimes violent rhymes we learned by rote were often taught to us in school. But have you ever asked yourself what on earth they were about? And what exactly were the morals and lessons we were meant to learn from them?Here Comes a Chopper to Chop Off Your Head delves into the origins of the best-known rhymes and tales to uncover a legacy of folk superstition, rotten royal families, execution, child marriage, cannibalism, and the multitude of other random acts of cruelty that make up any classic treasury.You'll learn about the bloody history of Mary,Mary, Quite Contrary; why Margery Daw, the subject of an innocent-seeming seesaw game, was accused of being a 'dirty slut'; and how pretending to decapitate your little friends to the tune of Oranges and Lemons became an acceptable pastime.You'll also find out about the terrifying events that befell the first Sleeping Beauty when she finally woke up; how Snow White's stepmother really died; and just who the wolf was in Little Red Riding Hood.

The latest comic novel from Christopher Buckley, in which a hapless Englishman embarks on a dangerous mission to the New World in pursuit of two judges who helped murder a king. London, 1664. Twenty years after the English revolution, the monarchy has been restored and Charles II sits on the throne. The men who conspired to kill his father are either dead or disappeared. Baltasar “Balty” St. Michel is twenty-four and has no skills and no employment. He gets by on handouts from his brother-in-law Samuel Pepys, an officer in the king’s navy. Fed up with his needy relative, Pepys offers Balty a job in the New World. He is to track down two missing judges who were responsible for the execution of the last king, Charles I. When Balty’s ship arrives in Boston, he finds a strange country filled with fundamentalist Puritans, saintly Quakers, warring tribes of Indians, and rogues of every stripe. Helped by a man named Huncks, an agent of the Crown with a mysterious past, Balty travels colonial America in search of the missing judges. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, Samuel Pepys prepares for a war with the Dutch that fears England has no chance of winning. Christopher Buckley’s enchanting new novel spins adventure, comedy, political intrigue, and romance against a historical backdrop with real-life characters like Charles II, John Winthrop, and Peter Stuyvesant. Buckley’s wit is as sharp as ever as he takes readers to seventeenth-century London and New England. We visit the bawdy court of Charles II, Boston under the strict Puritan rule, and New Amsterdam back when Manhattan was a half-wild outpost on the edge of an unmapped continent. The Judge Hunter is a smart and swiftly plotted novel that transports readers to a new world.