"This study uses [Pepys's] surviving papers to examine reading practices, collecting, and the exchange of information in the late 17th century"--Back cover.

Selections from Samuel Pepys' diary offers a vivid picture of seventeenth century British life, and are accompanied by background information concerning his life and times

Modern cooking can be summed up as perfecting some basic recipes to form the foundations of a personal repertoire, and then adding to them as confidence and creativity expand. Here, then, are 15 stylish but basic recipes that teach a range of easy-to-master cooking techniques - most with at least six variations - which provide a range of totally delicious, yet unpretentious food using fresh, top quality ingredients.Take chicken for example - once you've mastered the recipe for basic roast chicken, you can branch out and turn it into a hot salad. Or you could stuff the chicken before roasting it and then serve it on a baked potato gratin - and so on. This principle is extended to pan-fried steak, stew, pan-fried fish, steamed mussels, omelette, dried pasta, dried noodles, steamed rice and risotto, roasted vegetables, vegetable stir-fry, green salad, vegetable soup, pound cake and fresh fruit. Full colour photography - the kind that makes you want to get in the kitchen and cook - features throughout.

The 1660s represent a turning point in English history, and for the main events - the Restoration, the Dutch War, the Great Plague, the Fire of London - Pepys provides a definitive eyewitness account. Along with lively descriptions of his socializing, his amorous entanglements, his theater-going & music-making. Unequaled for its frankness, high spirits & sharp observations, the diary is both a literary masterpiece & a marvelous portrait of 17th-century life. Acclaimed by 'The Times' as "one of the glories of contemporary English publishing" and by Sir Arthur Bryant as "complete perfection", the Latham and Matthews edition remains the authoritative text and provides the source for this magnificent Folio Society publication.

As well as being the most celebrated diarist of all time, Samuel Pepys was also a hearty drinker, eater and connoisseur of epicurean delights, who indulged in every pleasure seventeenth-century London had to offer. Whether he is feasting on barrels of oysters, braces of carps, larks' tongues and copious amounts of wine, merrymaking in taverns until the early hours, attending formal dinners with lords and ladies or entertaining guests at home with his young wife, these irresistible selections from Pepys's diaries provide a frank, high-spirited and vivid picture of the joys of over-indulgence - and the side-effects afterwards.