John Adamson wins 2007 Samuel Pepys Award

A ground-breaking study of one of English history’s great turning points - the political crisis that led to the overthrow of King Charles 1 - has won The 2007 Samuel Pepys Award.   

John Adamson’s The Noble Revolt, published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, won huge critical acclaim when it was published earlier this year.   Described by one reviewer as “a monumental achievement”, The Noble Revolt is an absorbing narrative of the period between the king’s decision to fight the Scots in May 1640 and his flight from London in January 1642.  In it, John Adamson traces the careers and fortunes of the small group of English noblemen who risked their lives to challenge the king’s attempt to create an authoritarian monarchy.

The judges, who included the inaugural winner of the Prize, Claire Tomalin, were unanimous in their decision to award the prize to John Adamson.

Speaking on behalf of the judges, Roddy Pryor (Chairman), commented,

"From all the entries for The Samuel Pepys Award, we unanimously agreed on The Noble Revolt as the best written and most scholarly book within our remit. Readers may be surprised to find that Samuel Pepys is not mentioned once in the book. This is because he was only 7-9 years of age at the time but the events described so influenced the environment in which he grew up, that the book greatly enhances our understanding of Samuel Pepys and his times.

“Its 700 pages of text and notes focus entirely on the two and a half years between 1640-1642.   This 'microscopic' approach gives a close view of the workings of the Stuart parliament, overturns some long accepted understandings, and suggests some explanations which will be long debated by historians. Yet it is so lively, and beautifully written that our interest was gripped throughout.  We look forward to the promised sequel."

John Adamson is a Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge, and has written extensively on sixteenth and seventeenth-century political and cultural history. He is a winner of the Royal Historical Society's Alexander Prize and the University of Cambridge's Seeley Medal for History.

He was presented with a cheque for £2000 and a specially commissioned medal designed by Philip Nathan in memory of Robert Latham, the co-editor of the definitive edition of Pepys’s diary. The award was given at the annual Samuel Pepys dinner to be held at Apothecaries’ Hall on 23 October 2007.


The Samuel Pepys Award is a biennial prize and is given for a book that, in the opinion of the judges, makes the greatest contribution to the understanding of Samuel Pepys, his times or his contemporaries in the interest of encouraging scholarship in this area. The first award was given to Claire Tomalin’s Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self in 2003 to mark the tercentenary of his death in May 1703.    Frances Harris won the award in 2005 for Transformations of Love, for her vivid portrait of John Evelyn’s ‘chaste but passionate’ friendship with Margaret Godolphin, a maid of honour at the Restoration court of Charles II.

The judges of The Samuel Pepys Award 2007 were

 Dr Richard Luckett – Pepys Librarian, Magdalene College, Cambridge with particular interest in the music and literature of the seventeenth century
 Roddy Pryor (Chairman) – Chairman of the Samuel Pepys Club
 Sir Keith Thomas – historian and author of many works on early modern British history, Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and former President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford
 Claire Tomalin, historian, author and winner of the inaugural Samuel Pepys Award 2003.

 The Samuel Pepys Club was founded “to do honour to the memory of Samuel Pepys” on the bicentenary of Pepys’s death on 26 May 1903. The first dinner was held on 1 December 1903 at Clothworkers’ Hall, London. Well-known admirers of Pepys were invited to join the Club and membership was restricted to 70, the age of Pepys when he died. The number of members is now 140. A century after its foundation, the Club flourishes, more active than ever, with an annual dinner, visits, meetings and the Samuel Pepys Award which is held every two years.

For more information please contact Hannah Blake or Liz Sich at
 Colman Getty
020 7631 2666
hannah@colmangetty.co.uk

Colman Getty
28 Windmill Street
London WIT 2JJ

October 2007