There are some novels that go beyond a purely reading activity, these rare books immerse the reader so they become an experience. Books that fully engage the reader so that he/she feels irritated when away from the pages, or distracted [thinking about the characters and narrative] at idle moments – are even rarer than they were before - due the erosion of our attention spans, coupled to the plethora of other media [streaming TV, online distractions of social media et al] - and always accompanied by the ping-ping of smart phone notifications. So when you stumble upon a totally engrossing novel, one of significant heft – it is natural to want to inform others; as reading is good for our mental well-being.
Recently my mind has been taken over by Seething
Lane by Jack Jewers, featuring a fictionalised Samuel Pepys, the infamous
London diarist that wrote about his London adventures, including mixing the
events surrounding the great fire, his bawdy exploits and much, much more. Seething Lane is an extraordinary
novel, as it is best described as a dark “Swashbuckling
Adventure-cum-Detective Whodunit-cum-Historical Thriller”.
When a
strange young man turns up at his office on Seething Lane asking for help,
Samuel Pepys is too distracted to take him seriously. Nell Gwyn is about to
make her scandalous return to the stage and he wouldn’t miss it for all the
world.
But in
the cold of a winter’s dawn, tragedy strikes. Called upon to investigate the
brutal murder of a libertine aristocrat, Pepys discovers that the dead man is
connected to his mysterious visitor in the most shocking way possible.
A
trail of secrets leads Pepys from the backstreets of London to the glamorous
world of the theatre, where nothing is quite as it seems. But whatever the
dangers, he may find that the deadliest threat lies closer to home…
Reimagining
one of Britain’s greatest historical figures through a 21st century lens,
Seething Lane sees the return of infamous diarist Samuel Pepys, complete with
his trademark audacious wit, keen eye for observation and gripping historical
adventure.
Seething
Lane though released on the 3rd of September is available
for pre-order. And like its precursor The
Lost Diary of Samuel Pepys, the unabridged audiobook is read adroitly by actor
Gareth Armstrong.
I was fortunate to have lived through it last week and my thoughts -
During
the course of the novel, one of the author’s characters states “I ain’t being
no drudge. All I want is a bit of adventure in my life.” To which the
fictionalised Sam Pepys replies with a smile “Oh, my dear girl. You have no
Idea.” This exchange sums up this glorious narrative perfectly. Seething Lane
is an immersive experience for the reader in which A.D. 1670 London never felt
so evocatively menacing. When contrasted against the political machinations of
contemporary times, this deftly
researched historical narrative is as cautionary as it is prescient about
the dark side of human nature. The link between humanity, and how [in some
quarters] the inherent cruelty in seeking [or protecting] power leads to
unthinkable acts [and consequences] is ‘same as it ever was’.
Like
its theatrical base, there is criminal horror, there is adventure, there is
pathos [and regret] culminating in an exploration of what striates human nature
– like the melancholic opening monologue from William Shakespeare's pastoral
comedy As You
Like It – the theatrical production of
which acts metaphysically as the tent-pole that supports Jewer’s extraordinary
narrative.
“All the
world's a stage,
And all
the men and women are merely players;
They have
their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts.”
The
memory of experiencing this work will sit jaggedly in the reader’s mind for a
long, long time.
I’d
be surprised if Seething Lane is not featured in the key literary awards for
2026.
Read the full Shots Magazine Review HERE
The book trailer for Seething Lane is available HERE
I had prepared myself for Seething Lane by reading
its precursor The Lost Diary of Samuel Pepys, for which I wrote “……Rarely
has historical fiction become as thrilling as this opening volume of the
adventures of Samuel Pepys. The author provokes deep-thought with judiciously
researched period detail striated into a truly ‘edge-of-the-seat’ narrative….”
Read the full review HERE
When I put Seething Lane down I had questions,
so I was delighted when the author Jack Jewers kindly answered my queries,
which we present for our readers.
As I detail in my footnote, getting engaged in a novel
which has ‘Heft’ is remarkably
beneficial to counter the stresses of contemporary life, and Seething
Lane is one such book - a historical novel - after reading, we come back to the future, refreshed,
reinvigorated and de-stressed because it is a thought-provoking distraction to
the pace of modern life with all its anxieties.
Stephen King once
said “life is not a support system for
art, it’s the other way around”.
Please pardon my enthusiasm for reading books.
Ali Karim: Welcome to Shots Magazine.
Jack Jewers:
Thanks so much, Ali! It’s great to be here.
Ali: So the first question is, what attracted you
to creating Samuel Pepys into a fictional adventurer-cum-detective?
Jack: It
was a collision of two things, really. First, I was searching about for an idea.
Several people encouraged me to write a book, and I had actually said no to
agents on a couple of occasions – which I fully recognise was a very privileged
position to be in, the literary equivalent of headhunted. I was certainly very
flattered, but I just wasn’t sure I could do it. I felt that there were
aspiring authors out there who deserved it more than me. And besides, I didn’t
(yet) have a good idea.
At
around the same time, I discovered the diaries of Samuel Pepys. They were like
catnip to me! So rich in historical detail – moving, funny, sad, salacious, and
just plain fascinating. The full volumes run to well over a million words, but
my gateway was the edited audiobook version, read by Kenneth Branagh. They’re
highly recommended. Along with Gareth Armstrong, who narrates my audiobooks,
he’s just the perfect voice for Pepys.
Ali: As you are a renowned film maker, were your initial written
works destined for the screen or for books?
Jack: You’re
very kind to say renowned! That was certainly the creative field in which I
became most established – and am lucky enough to have received a certain amount
of attention. But I also wrote lots of screenplays, so there was always crossover.
Earlier
in my career I spent some time as a jobbing writer of non-fiction. At one point
I even had a job reviewing pubs for a London magazine. Which sounds like a
dream job, but honestly, after about the first dozen, it was so tedious! In retrospect,
however, it was actually quite good training for historical fiction, because it
forced me to look for creative ways to avoid saying the same things over and
over again. And that often meant delving into the history of these places to
find good stories – which in a place like London, are never far away.
Ali: So I take it you have always enjoyed reading? And
beyond Historical fiction and non-fiction what other genres, sub-genres do you
enjoy?
Jack: I
have always enjoyed reading, yes – but to be totally honest with you, Ali, it
wasn’t always easy for me. I struggled with dyslexia as a teenager, which
wasn’t identified until after I left secondary school. I remember how
frustrated my teachers would be, never able to comprehend why I understood
literature so well without being able to express my thoughts clearly on the
page. Classic dyslexia, as it happens – but this was in the nineties, so just
on the cusp of things like that being well understood. It left me with a
certain intimidation when it came to long, chunky reads. But then, in my
twenties, I was given a book called Sovereign by CJ Sansom, and I can
honestly say it changed my life. I devoured it – and kept going with all the
historical detective fiction I could lay my hands on. It was as if the spell
was broken. So while I am a voracious reader today, the truth is that I became
one later than expected.
Outside
of historical fiction, my go-to genre is classic crime, particularly the Golden
Age authors – Agatha Christie, Georges Simenon, Dorothy L. Sayers, people like
that. Although you know what one of my most fun discoveries has been recently?
Collins Crime Club novels from the eighties. I picked one up at a bookshop in
Harrogate a couple of years ago, during the crime writing festival. It had a
rather lurid cover, so it was a slightly ironic purchase, but I was surprised
to discover just how good it was! Now I have a little game on the go, which is
that when I finish one, I pick another from the ‘Readers May Also Enjoy’
selection on the back cover and track it down, like a relay of half-forgotten
thriller writers. I’ve discovered some real gems that way – people I’d never
even heard of before, such as Roy Lewis, M.R.D. Meek, and Jeffrey Ashford. A
new one just arrived today, in fact. So that’s my weekend sorted!
Ali: Can you tell our readers a little about your
childhood and what were the first books you enjoyed?
Jack: My
childhood was quite bohemian, but with a very hardworking mother. I was raised
in a single parent family and my mother was (is – sorry Mum, she’s 86 but will
kill me if I say was), an actress, so I sort of grew up backstage at
theatres across the country. This is one big reason why my new book, Seething
Lane, takes place in the world of Covent Garden theatres. Although it’s set
hundreds of years in the past, there’s much about an actor’s life then that’s
pretty timeless. So I was writing something I knew. Aspects of the characters
in the book are inspired by real actors I’ve known – both as a child, and
later, professionally, as an adult – and while many of them are larger than
life, I hope they’re honest portrayals. I certainly didn’t want to fall back on
the lazy cliché of actors being unserious people – quite the opposite, in fact,
as Pepys is firmly told at one point in the book.
As to
the books I enjoyed as a child, more than anything I loved fantasy, with a hint
of the supernatural. And a smattering of sci-fi. I had an extremely over-active
imagination. When I was about twelve, I became convinced I was going to have a
career cracking UFO cases (as you do), so I would max out my library card
borrowing books with titles like ‘World of the Unknown’ and ‘Above Top Secret.’
The truth was definitely out there, but, to be fair, so was I.
Ali: And your education?
Jack: I
did reasonably well at school, despite the problems I mentioned, and then
became a bit of a tearaway at college. I was clever but quite rebellious, and
that was definitely reflected in my grades, which were appalling. Right up
until the last minute, I had no plans to go to university, then a wonderful man
called John Hefin – a retired film director and ex-head of drama at BBC Wales,
who had taken up teaching – offered me a place to study film at the University
of Wales. I didn’t even have the necessary grades, but he recognised something
in me, and, three years later, I left with a first-class degree. I’ll forever
be grateful to him for that. Although I shudder at the amount of debt young
people have to get into now in order to have a university education. It took me
about fifteen years to pay off my student loans, and that’s when the fees were
much smaller than they are today. I’m honestly not sure I’d be able to do it
now.
Ali: Without wishing to pry……I guess being
married to fellow novelist Ava Glass must be ‘interesting’,
so can you tell our readers what the married life of two novelists is like?
Jack: It
is the greatest gift! Although we’re very different writers, we make each other
better at every stage. We’re each other’s first readers and, by necessity,
harshest critics – we have to be, it’s part of the deal. Ideas are discussed
over coffee and tricky plot points hammered out during long walks with the dog.
I’m in awe of Ava’s productivity. After the agony of coming up with an idea and
a synopsis is over, she can usually turn around a first draft in three months.
Three months! Seething Lane took me five years. The absolute barefaced
cheek. I’m livid. In fact, I take back everything I said, how dare she
be so talented.
Ali: Going back to
your own writing, I appreciated the bibliography and historical notes that your
Samuel Pepys novels contain, so tell us how selective you had to be in
traversing the research required for ‘Seething Lane’?
Jack: The
trick with historical fiction is that you have to research, and research, and
research, and research, and research, and then just put it all away and write
the damn book. Once you’ve done so much reading – of history books, primary
sources, letters, diaries, you name it – the temptation is to put it all on the
page. You want to share it all, but then you’re in real danger of bogging down
the story.
I once
read an historical thriller in which a chase scene was paused for a detailed
description of how a street looked at a particular point in time. And while I
totally understand that urge as a writer, as a reader I found it very
frustrating. My goal with research is to allow me to fashion a bygone world
that is immersive – and that needn’t even mean sticking to the letter of
history, because truth and accuracy are not always the same thing.
At the
end of the day, it’s the job of historical fiction writers to transport our
readers back in time by making them feel like they’re there. It’s no
good having your characters swan around, talking like they’re taking part in
historical events the whole time, when really to them it’s just Wednesday.
Ali: I found the historical insights into late 1600s
London [contained in ‘Seething Lane’] fascinating, especially the vivid
geography of the city. Did you walk around the area[s] / regions of London to
gain a flavour of the locations? And how did that inform your writing?
Jack: Definitely.
Seething Lane is at the epicentre of the book – it’s right there in the title!
It’s a real place, just north of the Tower of London, and I find it very
atmospheric. You get a palpable sense of history, which is curious, as most of
the buildings there are quite modern. Only St. Olave’s Church remains from
Pepys’ day, and even that was rebuilt after the Blitz. There are other
real-life locations in the book that called for more imagination, because
they’re almost entirely lost to time. One of these is the Palace of White Hall,
which burned down in 1698. It was absolutely vast, but only small pieces
remain. One of them is the Banqueting House – where a teenage Samuel Pepys
skived off school to watch King Charles I have his head cut off!
Ali: The insights into the London Theatre [post-Cromwell],
Shakespeare, and Drury Lane etc [that plays such a key aspect to the plot of
‘Seething Lane’] brings the novel to life – so are you regular theatre goer?
Jack: I am definitely a regular theatre goer,
although less so than Samuel Pepys, who often went several times a week. His
diaries are filled with reviews of plays he saw, good and bad. (His review of A
Midsummer Night’s Dream, for example, was “the most insipid, ridiculous
play I ever saw.”) I mentioned that I grew up in theatres, but I also grew up
going to see plays, often over my own objections. I vividly recall being
dragged to see Ian McKellan in Richard III at the National – one of the great theatre
productions of the late twentieth century, as it happened, though I was far too
young. Nonetheless, it made a huge impression on me. Now I probably get to go to
the theatre about four or five times a year. The best thing I’ve seen on the
London stage recently is Ava Pickett’s 1536, which is about the downfall
of Anne Boleyn seen through the eyes of some ordinary women in an Essex village.
Only it’s not really about that at all, it’s about the social contagions of
misinformation and misogyny. As historical fiction, it’s brilliant – and frighteningly
timely.
Ali: ‘Seething Lane’ contains a large array of
characters, many with small roles in the proceedings, but their inclusion is
written with a flourish that makes them distinct – so what were you like [as a
person] juggling such a large cast?
Jack: I’m
so glad that you’ve said that, because my approach to small characters is that
there basically aren’t any – this just happens not to be their story. Nobody is
a cypher. So I kept track with a cast list, including key traits I needed to
know. And I don’t just mean basic things like hair and eye colour, but full
backstories. I know where most of the characters were born, what their
childhoods were like, the big events in their life, and so on. A lot of this stuff
doesn’t make it into the book, but it helps complete them as characters. It makes
them feel more real. That said, there were several I had to cut, as the book
just got too unwieldy. It pained me to have to lose characters such as feisty Betty
Martin – successful London businesswoman and one-time mistress of Samuel Pepys,
who appears frequently in some of the more osé passages of the real
diaries. But maybe if there’s a book three…
Ali: Particular mention must be made of the
strength of your female characters from Elisabeth Pepys, Nell Gwyn and an array
of Minor [but important figures] such as Lady Castlemaine, Hannah Godwinstone,
Emily Wrekin, Mistress Abby [of Billingsgate ] et al – so despite Samuel Pepys’
…….historical roguish reputation around women…… your novels have strong and
vividly realised female characters often the equal to the womanising diarist
[…..even in The Lost Diary of Samuel Pepys, he is saved by the actions of
Charlotte de Vere and her ‘hidden league’ of women] – would you care to
comment?
Jack: I’m very glad that you say that about the
women in my books, thank you. It was very important to me, particularly as the
real Pepys had a rather dubious record when it comes to women. It was never
going to be believable for me to miraculously turn him into a first wave
feminist, but I could at least put him in situations where he has his
prejudices challenged.
Characters
such as Elisabeth Pepys, Nell Gwyn and Lady Castlemaine were real people, with
fascinating (and, in the case of Elisabeth, under-told) life stories. Nell, in particular,
was irresistible. Here was a woman who rose from abject poverty – she was
literally abandoned on the streets of Covent Garden as a little girl and had to
survive, alone, by whatever wits she could – to become the king’s mistress and
the world’s first true, celebrity actress. She was sassy, potty mouthed, and
very, very funny. I’m not sure I’ve ever had as much fun writing a character as
I did her.
Elisabeth
Pepys was also a clever woman, whose wit and personality shines through the
pages of Pepys’ diaries, even though they had a difficult relationship. What I
find particularly interesting about Elisabeth is that we had an incomplete picture
of her for such a long time, due to censorship. She suffered from some very
painful medical conditions – some of which you’ll know about if you’ve read Seething
Lane – but, because they were considered indelicate, they were edited out
of the published editions until as late as the 1970s. So behaviours that might
once have come across as petulant and immature, took on a whole new light when
we had the full picture. Telling more of her story was really important to me.
Ali: And finally, what [a] books have passed your
reading table that you have recently enjoyed? And [b] what films have you
recently enjoyed?
Jack: I
recently read The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas and absolutely
loved it. Rip-roaringly good fun from start to finish, with the sole downside
that lodged the theme from Dogtanian became lodged in my head for the
two weeks it took me to get through it.
Going
back to my love of classic crime, I’ve just finished Death in Dark Glasses
– a pacey and surprisingly brutal thriller from 1952 by George Bellairs, who
I’d not heard of until recently. He was a bank manager who wrote detective
thrillers in his spare time – dozens of them, it seems, so I’ll be looking out
for more. I’ve also started dipping my toe into Ellis Peters’ Brother
Cadfael books. I found the TV series offputtingly clean and twee, but her
books are great – much grittier. Plus, it’s a new (to me) historical crime
series to get my teeth into. Praise be!
Film-wise,
I loved Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. There was a certain amount of
debate about whether it did the source material justice, all of which was
perfectly justified, but I did rather feel that some of the criticism lost
sight of the fact that it’s a film first, and an adaptation second. What ends
up on the screen is always the only way to judge a film, and I thought it was a
great achievement.
On the
other end of the epic scale, I recently saw Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle
Vague. It’s a tiny, black-and-white indie movie that tells the story of the
making of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, the film which propelled the
French New Wave into the stratosphere. It’s huge fun and I’m not sure I’ve ever
seen such an achingly cool film in my life.
Ali: Thank you for your time, insight and
patience.
Jack: It’s
my absolute pleasure. Thank you, Ali!
Shots Magazine would like to thank Tory
Lyne-Pirkis and Moonflower for
organising this interview and to Jack Jewers for his time and insight.
If you are new to the work of Jack Jewers, the following
links maybe useful -
Jack Jewers Website > https://www.jackjewers.com
Moonflower Books Website > https://www.moonflowerbooks.co.uk/jack-jewers
Jack Jewers film work > https://inversefilms.co.uk/about
Jack Jewers essay on research > http://www.shotsmag.co.uk/feature_view.aspx?FEATURE_ID=498
Footnote
In the increasingly stressful reality, reading novels help
combat the inherent anxiety of our times, and Seething Lane by Jack Jewers
is one such novel in my opinion.
According
to research carried out by Mindlab International at the University of Sussex,
reading for only 6 minutes reduces stress levels by 68%, making it more
effective than listening to music 61%, having a cuppa 54%, taking a walk by
42%, or playing video games 21%. Dr. David Lewis, a cognitive neuropsychologist
who conducted the study agrees that reading a book is the ultimate relaxation
but goes further to say, “This is more than merely a distraction but an active
engaging of the imagination as the words on the printed page stimulate your
creativity and cause you to enter what is essentially an altered state of
consciousness.”
Researchers
believe that the concentration required for reading has a physiological effect
on the brain, engages the imagination and stimulates creativity, all
contributing to a shutdown of the emergency fight or flight response. As the stress
hormones dissipate, the fear centre of the brain becomes less active and the
rationalisation areas of the brain take over. This shift in the brain makes you
feel calmer and more in control.
Read More from Newcastle University HERE
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