Samuel Pepys kept from 1660 until 1669 was first published in the 19th century and is one of the most important primary sources for the English Restoration period. It provides a combination of personal revelation and eyewitness accounts of great events, such as the Great Plague of London, the Second Dutch War, and the Great Fire of London. Pepys was born in Salisbury Court, Fleet Street, London on 23 February 1633, the son of John Pepys (1601–1680), a tailor, and Margaret Pepys ("née" Kite; died 1667), daughter of a Whitechapel butcher. His great uncle Talbot Pepys was Recorder and briefly Member of
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