Intimate and revealing, the private diaries in this anthology give us a glimpse into the daily life of a bygone age. Ranging over a crucial 150 year period, the author has collected passages from more than 40 diarists. Some, like Pepys and Evelyn, are justifiably famous; most are unknown and previously unpublished. Weaving them around the central rites of passage - birth, infancy and childhood, courtship, marriage, old age and death - he provides a detailed and human picture of domestic life in early modern England.