PEPY'S BOY

A lively fictionalized biography of Samuel Pepy's page boy shows signs of diligent research as it recreates a period and a place and follows Toby Wayneman through adventures behind the scenes of Pepy's diary. Toby, as the author names her hero, came from a boyhood marred by a sullen war with his stepmother and gladly ran off to Restoration London when the opportunity came. On his way he meets William Penn, later to prove a valued acquaintance, and gets a job in a saltworks to earn money. London, when Toby reaches it, rewards him with anticipation's fulfillment and there is a happy result to his desires for independence when he sails as a young man to become a colonist in Philadelphia. A well detailed narrative may be the stimulus to go to the diaries from whence it stems.