Claire Tomalin's biography of Pepys is a goodly panorama of his life, setting him in context of history, his relationships with eminent and lowly persons, as well as with the politics of his times. Pepys seized every day of his life, living each with gusto. For ten years he examined his life with minute attention to detail, producing his masterpiece the great diary.

Why is his diary great? It is great because, whether by design or accident, simultaneously Pepys fulfilled the dicta of Plato and Winston Churchill. Plato is reported to have said that the life which is unexamined is not worth living: Churchill replied that the unlived life is not worth examining. Pepys lived. He examined his days. In his vigour he reported what he saw in simple, direct language.

Tomalin's life of Pepys is worth reading before you plunge into the 11 volumes of the diary edited by Robert Latham and William Matthews—this edition is published by Harper Collins in paperback.