His work is marked by honesty, for he does not look away from their flaws. But Catherwood also shows how their lives were touched by greatness from God, for He must be the ultimate explanation for the reformers' accomplishments. Catherwood does not merely re-tell familiar facts. He opens up their meaning and relevance, so that one is drawn into the drama with effortless fascination. As I read, I was constantly making connections with our present-day situation. It was a privilege to read this book, and it is a delight to recommend it.

This is a vigorous insider's account of five churchmen and theologians prominent in the movement that transformed the face of Christendom. The author emphasises especially the political dimension of the reformation, and with it the emancipation of lay people. He corrects caricatures, without portraying plaster saints. This is a religious biography with a message for today, lest we forget.

Christopher Catherwood's fluent style brings out the broad sweep of a spiritual movement which transcended national barriers and has left a permanent mark on Europe and in the wider world. He shows how five men of very different personality and outlook could all be caught up in the same experience of a life transformed by the power of God. The portraits are painted "warts and all" but the message is clear - God can and does use the weak and imperfect things of this world to proclaim his message of salvation in Christ to all who believe.

Christopher Catherwood, a writer abreast of ongoing historical study of the period and aware of the spiritual issues hanging on the chain of events, tracks five major players from the cradle to the grave: Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Cranmer, Knox. Each in his way was a watershed figure, and Catherwood's vivid profiling of them will help to keep their memory green.