A History of the Catholic Church
Piers Paul Read
Meid, £25, 560 pages
Piers Paul Read – veteran novelist, historian and biographer – has produced, in his ninth decade, a book that evokes the prophet Micah’s vision of Bethlehem Ephrathah, “little among the thousands of Judah”: which is to say, humble at first glance, but coming very much into its own later on. Much of this is down to the plain and unevocative cover – curious for a book of this kind – by which of course the rest should not be judged.
