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‘This fascinating story is told with brilliance by Adam Nicolson.’

Glasgow Herald

‘An engaging and moving account … marvellous.’

Economist

‘Power and Glory … pays that Bible eloquent tribute, not least in its passionate homage to the power of language as, and in, history. His own words give us not only the rich history but a moving commemoration of the Bible that has so much shaped our utterances and lives.’

Independent

‘Nicolson’s portraits of Jacobean intellectuals, theologians, politicians and princes overlay the lasting achievement that underpins this book. His approach to personalities humanises the beauty and ceremony of the biblical prose that still transcends its makers.’

The Times

‘Conversational, witty and engaging. It is extraordinarily readable … Adam Nicolson gives us a swashbuckling and fastmoving account of the accession of King James I of England and VI of Scotland in 1603 … he catches the spirit of the age in his own literary style … There is power and glory here in spadefuls, and a great deal of kingdom too.’

The Tablet

‘One wouldn’t think an account of the translation of the Bible would prove an enthralling read, but Adam Nicolson’s narrative has a sweep of grandeur at which a brief review like this can only hint. This is history with masterly writing and a cast of bizarre characters. Highly recommended.’

Irish Examiner

‘It is a popular book as popular books used to be, a breeze rather than a scholarly sweat, but humanely erudite, elegantly written, passionately felt … Nicolson’s excitement is contagious.’

New Yorker

‘Nicolson shows us in captivating detail how the diverse translators of the King James Bible captured compelling debates that remain relevant to this day.’

Newsweek

‘A readable, immaculately researched book … The author has a clear understanding of the time, the issues involved and, above all, of the people who made the King James Bible. He could not have told his story more compellingly.’

Country Life

‘Adam Nicolson’s stunning history of the Authorised Version is really a prosopography, a study of the dynamic group of scholars who put together what some call the best book in the English language. Nicolson’s focus on the words these men left behind enables him to combine scholarship with a greater emotional sensitivity.’

Observer

‘Adam Nicolson’s book is unobtrusively learned, rich in curious and purposeful detail, an ideal balance between fervent enthusiasm and elegantly witty detachment. The story of the translation’s origins and production is a subject which, one always felt, would be nice to hear from a really sparkling and sharp guide. This volume strikes me as exactly that, a brilliantly entertaining, passionate, funny and instructive telling of an important and gripping story.’

PHILIP HENSHER, The Spectator

‘Adam Nicolson has a nose for quirks, follies and ironies … Nicolson fascinatingly demonstrates how these translators took the plain, sinewy prose of the fugitive martyr William Tyndale – written 80 years previously – and polished it to gem-like brightness, looking for words which would resonate with passion and ring sonorously amid the solemnity of worship … He has written a marvellous book: there are few more stylish or sensitive introductions than this to the personalities, the sights and the smells, as well as to the words, of Jacobean England.’

Sunday Telegraph

‘Nicolson really deserves at least an 18-gun salute. Power and Glory is a fine piece of history, ecclesiology and literature all rolled into one and, what’s more, like the Authorised Version itself, it sings.’

Guardian

‘This is an easygoing, companionable exploration of Elizabethan and Jacobean England … will delight the general reader, for whom it was written … Nicolson takes one back to the Bible with a fresh eye and ear, which is not easily done these days.’

New Statesman

‘The story of the seven years between commissioning and printing fascinates from start to finish. It is told in a way which combines scholarship and entertainment.’

Independent on Sunday

‘Vivid, exhilarating, consistently intelligent, you can almost taste the air breathed by these Jacobean heroes, who gave English its most famous book. History at its best.’

SIMON JENKINS

‘Nicolson vividly evokes many aspects of Jacobean England: the secret police, religious passions, a profligate court, an atmosphere of emotional extravagance, splendid architecture, stained glass … Adam Nicolson has deepened my understanding of the greatest work of English prose, for which I am grateful.’

Literary Review