In 1670, Samuel Pepys is into the glamorous world of London theatres, where he is tasked with catching a killer – but nothing is quite as it seems and the deadliest threat lies closer to home. We sat down with author Jack Jewers to discuss his upcoming novel, Seething Lane. You can pre-order your copy of Seething Lane here.
Seething Lane blends historical fact with fiction—what did writing Samuel Pepys as a detective reveal about him that his famous diaries do not?
The book is an imagined continuation of the diaries of Samuel Pepys, but first and foremost it’s a novel. That allowed me to explore certain personality traits that I believe are hinted at in his diaries. I think he was quite depressive, for example, while also being a bon viveur and genuinely cultured man. On the other hand, the real Pepys was a misogynist who got up to some pretty reprehensible things in his private life. So I also wanted to address that without being heavy handed. Nobody would believe it if I suddenly made him a first wave feminist, but I could put him into situations where he’s forced to confront his prejudices in ways that hopefully feel natural and unforced.
The Restoration period transformed London culturally and politically; what parallels do you see between that era of reinvention and the city today?
In January 1670, when Seething Lane takes place, Samuel Pepys was 36. He had seen England go from absolute monarchy to a country devastated by civil war, which ended in the execution of the king. (Fun fact: a teenage Pepys skipped school to watch him being beheaded.) We then had a decade of government under Oliver Cromwell, a strict religious conservative who nonetheless opened up London to immigration in ways that hadn’t been seen before. Then came the restoration of the king and the reopening of pubs and theatres – with the scandalous addition of women on the stage for the first time. Then we had a huge pandemic, followed by the Great Fire, plus things like the disastrous Anglo-Dutch war that upended England’s view of where it stood in the world. So I think there are clear parallels between Restoration London and the city of today. If we think our world is changing fast, imagine how Pepys must have felt!
Nell Gwyn’s rise from orange seller to celebrated actress and royal mistress remains extraordinary – what does her story tell us about class, celebrity and social mobility in 17th-century Britain?
I think we can get too carried away talking about concepts like social mobility in Pepys’ time. Although it did exist – 17th-century Britain was a proto-capitalist society – the opportunities for advancement were limited, particularly if you were a woman, and especially a poor one. It’s why so many fell into sex work, for example. Nell was abandoned by her parents in Covent Garden as a little girl and fended for herself until, at the age of fourteen, she became an actress at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, where she’d been working as an orange seller. She met King Charles one night after a show, when he took the whole cast out for drinks – and forgot his money. Nell paid the bill, loudly complaining about “the poverty of my company.” Charles was besotted and took her as an official mistress, a position that afforded her security for the rest of her life.
Your research highlights the influence of royal mistresses on both society and the physical landscape of London; why do you think their contributions have often been overlooked in mainstream history?
I just looked up the word ‘mistress’ in the dictionary and got the following synonyms: concubine, lover, other woman, doxy. Mainstream history has overlooked the importance of mistresses because the associations have been seen as, well, a bit grubby for polite conversation. I do think that has changed a lot, though, and there has been some very important writing on the subject by historians such as Linda Porter, Hallie Rubenhold, and Lucy Worsley. Incidentally, if you want to see an example of the hidden influence of royal mistresses, pick up a 50p piece. The model for Britannia, who appears on the reverse, was Frances Stewart, another mistress of Charles II.
Theatre Royal Drury Lane has survived fires, rebuilds, royal patronage and changing tastes – what do you think its enduring history reveals about London’s relationship with theatre?
That culture will find a way! London without theatre doesn’t bear thinking about. The same goes for its great venues for music, film, art… When one of them closes for good, a little bit of the city dies. The Theatre Royal does have a rich history, but it’s one story of many. Although today I would add to the list of its imperilments the extraordinary cost of putting on a play, maintaining a commercial theatre in one of the most expensive cities in the world, to say nothing of the expense for theatregoers. There’s not much about Restoration London that you can point to and say ‘things were better in those days,’ but the price of a ticket in the West End is certainly one of them.
From buried parmesan during the Great Fire to keeping a pet lion, Samue Pepys often feels surprisingly modern – what aspect of his personality most surprised you while researching the novel?
I agree that his words feel surprisingly modern, but to an extent that’s because we have the opportunity to read them in such an unfiltered way. People, after all, were still people. How many generations removed from Restoration London is the oldest person alive today, I wonder? Probably fewer than we’d think. However, one thing that always stands out for me is Pepys’ extremely sassy theatre reviews. He loved the theatre, and went frequently, but his diaries record just as many plays he didn’t like as those he did. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, for example, he described as “the most insipid, ridiculous play I ever saw.” Say what you like about the man, he would have been great at social media.