A Capital Diary - Edinburgh 1971-1996. Samuel Pepys grew up and lived in Scotland's capital between the years 1956 and 1996 - a period of forty years.. Two books which greatly influenced him were Robert Louis Stevenson's Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes published in December 1878 and the incomparable and finest book ever written about Edinburgh, David Daiches's wonderful Two Worlds which was first published in the year of Samuel's birth, 1956. Daiches's book beautifully captures the city, particularly his boyhood in the 1920s.. Unbeknown to Samuel, in a very small way, he was following in their very footsteps with the diaries and journals he kept from being a fourteen year old schoolboy back in 1971 until he left the capital as a middle-aged man of forty in 1996.. The format of the book features a single extract selected from one corresponding day in a year - thus 365 vignettes plus of course one to represent a single leap year too making for 366 extracts, some of which are short, more that are of medium length and when the day merited it or the muse and the desire took hold of Samuel and the pen flowed, a few of which are of essay length.. The posts take the form of a Dali folded clock so that although the diary extracts correlate with the calendar day of the year they include a single extract from amongst 25 years so Samuel may appear as a truant-playing schoolboy, as a youth or as a man - he may, or indeed may not be at school, at college, or at work - single or married - and as time zips back and forward he 'magically' appear as a son, as an uncle and eventually as a father too.. The tale is set within the social culture of Edinburgh beautifully evoking the city throughout the four seasons of the year and its famously varying and temperamental weather all set within a town-dweller and lover's precipitous city - it transports the reader back to a familiar but lost time to still very recognisable streets and shops many of which are now long gone to that graveyard in the sky. The surrounding landscape comes alive too in his jottings with contemporary references of each era to sport; the arts; newspapers; books; radio; and television with occasional references to what's going on in the big world too.. Much of Edinburgh life is here - tis a local story - tis a true story too - but one with universal themes too, so a book for those interested in family and social history beyond the Athens of the North.
