John Evelyn I, Oliver Cromwell's rise and eventual natural death, the last Great Plague of London, and the Great Fire of London in 1666. Evelyn's posthumously "rival" diarist, Samuel Pepys, wrote a different kind of diary, covering a much shorter period, 1660–1669, but in much greater depth, within the same era. Over the years, Evelyn's Diary has been overshadowed by Pepys's chronicles of 17th-century life. Born into a family whose wealth was largely founded on gunpowder production, John Evelyn was born in Wotton, Surrey and grew up in Lewes, Sussex. While living in Lewes, in Southover Grange, he was educated at Lewes
Samuel Pepys together with annotations from public and experts alike. In December 2003 the blog won the best specialist blog award in "The Guardian"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Best of British Blogs. In 1958 the BBC produced a serial called "Samuel Pepys!", in which Peter Sallis played the title role. In 2003 a television film "The Private Life of Samuel Pepys" aired on BBC2. Steve Coogan played Pepys. The 2004 film "Stage Beauty" concerns London theatre in the 17th century and is based on Jeffrey Hatcher's play "Compleat Female Stage Beauty", which in turn was inspired by a reference in Pepys's diary to the actor Edward