Shepherds, Sheep, Hirelings and Wolves: An Anthology of Christian Currents in English Life Since AD 550 by Tim Williams, reviewed by Septimus Waugh

Pope Francis has refocused the ecumenical initiative away from the formal, institutional unity being laboriously investigated by theologians, to an informal, grassroots, and immediate unity in the martyr-blood of ordinary Christians.

Having known Cardinal Pell since 1967, the author George Weigel introduces his friend’s candid Prison Journal

“Graham Greene continues to speak to an unquiet world,” Prof Greene declares, adding, more importantly, that he is “one of the very few modern writers in English who can be valued for a whole body of work”.

Purists may blanch at the invented dialogue and contemporary flourishes with which Fry embellishes his narrative. But to do so is to neglect the fact that the myths have been evolving and mutating since long before they were written down.

Chapter House columnists and contributors to this page share their favorite Christmas story, book, movie, or music.

A new study is full of imaginative sympathy

America and Iran: A History, 1720 to the Present by John Ghazvinian One World, 667pp, £16.99 John Ghazvinian has written a magnificent, bold, wide-reaching and potentially significant book on the thorny subject of Iranian-American relations. A subject that has been covered elsewhere (Barry Rubin’s Paved with Good Intentions, for example), Ghazvinian throws fresh historical light on

Pictured: detail of a Sistine Chapel fresco (image copyright: Vatican Museums via Callaway).

Conservatism: The Fight for a Tradition By Edmund Fawcett Princeton University Press, 544pp, £30 What is conservatism? Is it dogma or disposition, ideology or instinct? And what are conservatives? What do they have in common with each other, past and present, and how do they differ from socialists and liberals? These are some of the

Elena Curti, former Deputy Editor of The Tablet, has written "Fifty Catholic Churches to see before you die". Michael Hodges reviews it.

The Churchill Myths By Steven Fielding, Bill Schwarz and Richard Toye Oxford University Press, 224pp, £20/$25.95 This is not a book about Winston Churchill, insist its co-authors Steven Fielding, Bill Schwarz and Richard Toye. The three, all professors of history, introduce us instead to “mythic Churchill”. They finished their work as the Covid-19 virus struck;