J W M Thompson
A Restoration Rogue
The Plot Against Pepys
By James Long and Ben Long
Faber & Faber 322pp £17.99
The central character in this story is not, in fact, the eminent public servant Samuel Pepys, but one ‘Colonel’ John Scott (as he styled himself), surely one of the most comprehensive and unregenerate of villains from any period of English history. This Scott’s well-attested record included murder, theft, swindling, confidence tricks, bigamy, forgery, and other such matters. His significance here arises from the disreputable part he played in the politics of the Restoration years. He was a prize specimen of the chancers and rogues who flourished in those unstable times when England was repeatedly gripped by anti-Catholic hysteria.
In 1679, with fear of the ‘Popish Plot’ at its most extreme, Scott was happy to supply forged evidence (for money, of course) that implicated Pepys in the supposed conspiracy. His special function was to establish treasonable links between Pepys and the French by providing manufactured records of clandestine meetings
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
When @djbduncan notices the text for a literary jigsaw puzzle had been written by a former colleague, his head spins. A wild surmise. Are jigsaws REF-able?
Dennis Duncan - The W Factor
Dennis Duncan: The W Factor
literaryreview.co.uk
In an effort to scold drinkers, Victorian temperance societies furiously marked every drinking establishment with a red X on city maps. It was a spectacular case of propaganda backfiring.
@foxtosser explores the history of drink maps
Edward Brooke-Hitching - From Beer Street to Gin Lane
Edward Brooke-Hitching: From Beer Street to Gin Lane - Drink Maps in Victorian Britain by Kris Butler
literaryreview.co.uk
How did a workers’ insurance agent who died of tuberculosis at the age of forty become a global literary icon?
@MortenHoiJensen on Kafka's metamorphosis
Morten Høi Jensen - Paranoid Humanoid
Morten Høi Jensen: Paranoid Humanoid - Metamorphoses: In Search of Franz Kafka by Karolina Watroba; Kafka: Making o...
literaryreview.co.uk