BRIEF LIVES

John Aubrey was a slightly disreputable member of the gentry. Born in 1626, he inherited his father's heavily indebted estate, and eventually went bankrupt in the 1670's. From then until his death in 1697 he lived by cadging hospitality from friends and acquaintances, and hiding from his creditors.

But he was also - along with his contemporary Samuel Pepys - the forerunner of the modern gossip columnist. Brief Lives is the collection of notes and manuscripts, which formed part of his estate. They are miniature portraits, some factual, some racy, of the great men and women of the late sixteenth and seventeenth century in England, a period which saw huge religious conflicts, two Civil Wars, the execution of King Charles I, a Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell, and the restoration of the monarchy in 1660.

Riveting stuff.

Walter Blotscher