Breakspear: The English Pope
RAJ Waddingham
The History Press, £25, 304 pages
After a few years of any papacy it inevitably happens: people start wondering what life will be like in the next one. As the names roll in to be greeted with a raising of the eyes in some quarters and a quickening of the pulse in others, the old adage applies: be careful what you wish for. Who will succeed Pope Francis? God only knows. It seems highly unlikely, however, that the next conclave will elect a boy from Hertfordshire made good. And yet in 1154 that is exactly what happened.
