Unusually, instead of moving from a narrative to an analytic structure, David Waters moves his pupils from causal analysis to narrative. By the time pupils are ready to produce their storyboard narrative, their thinking about the Great Fire has been shaped and re-shaped not only by structural exercises and argument about positioning of causes, but by reflection on Samuel Pepys’ vivid diary. Enriched both by earlier source work and by in-depth work on Pepys’ language, pupils re-organise their account of the Great Fire. They use a narrative to show how the Great Fire got out of control and became ‘Great’. Within this process, David Waters invests time in helping pupils to enjoy Pepys’ distinctive 17th century language, and so unlocks views and feelings about London and Londoners lurking in the visual images and sound-pictures that Pepys’ prose evokes.