I honestly thought I would find this book more interesting than I did.
It is an excerpt of the diary of Samuel Pepys, published in a Penguin Little Black Classic, taken from his full diary, consisting of two parts.
The first, supposedly about the plague arriving in London, really is rather dull. The plague gets a brief passing mention towards the end of the text, the remainder is fairly mundane information, some almost like reading gibberish unless concentration is applied:
12 May 1665: By water to the Exchequer, and there up and down through all the offices to strike my tallies for 17500l- which methinks is so great a testimony of the goodness of God to me; that I, from a mean clerk there, should come to strike tallies myself for that sum, and in the authority that I do now, is a very stupendous mercy to me. I shall have them struck tomorrow. But to see how every little fellow, looks after his fees, and to get what he can for everything, is a strange consideration - the King's Fees, that he must pay himself for this 17500l coming to above 100l...
25 June 1665: Up, and all day in some little grutchings of pain, as I use to have - from winde - arising, I think, from my fasting so long and want of exercise - and I think, going so hot in clothes, the weather being hot and I in the same clothes I wore all winter...
The second part of the excerpt covers the inception of the fire on 2 September 1666 through to 15 September, when the fire is still in full control of the city. This section is a little more interesting.
Obviously it covers the fire from the perspective of a wealthy property owner, with assets at risk, having sometimes only a matter of hours to collect what possessions can be taken from a home before it succumbs to the flames.
2 September 1666: ...so as we were forced to begin to pack up our own goods and prepare for their removal... Mr Hater and I did remove my money and Iron chests into my cellar - as thinking that the safest place. And got my bags of gold into my office ready to carry away, and my chief papers of accounts also there, and my tallies into a box by themselves...
For me this sits somewhere between two and three stars, but closer to two than three, so that's where I settle.
