THREE AGAINST LONDON

Seventeenth century London, teeming with people from all strata is recreated in this lively story of three young people, Amos and Kip Skeet who work the Fishermen's Wharf on the Thames, and Susan Stokes, scullery maid in the household of the famous diarist Samuel Pepys. Until the outbreak of the Great Fire, the story moves along easily -- telling of Amos' and Susan's courtship, depicting the tribulations of the working classes and the dangers always lurking in the form of disease and crime. Though the boys survive the plague, they are intimately connected with the fire, for Kip is accused of commiting arson because of his association with a criminal gang. When it appears hopeless that Kip will get a fair trial, the three manage to get passage on a ship bound for America. Notations from the diary of Samuel Pepys add to the flavor of the times. Good- as history and fiction.