Francis Phillips reviews “James, by the Grace of God…” By Hugh Ross Williamson. Fisher Press. £11. 99

"Generations of schoolchildren have been taught to believe that the coming of William of Orange to England in 1688, and the ousting of the legitimate king, James II, from the throne of England, was a “Glorious Revolution”. In reality it was a shabby usurpation brought about by a fickle mob, unscrupulous propaganda and a posse of Protestant grandees. This book, first published by the popular historian and man of letters, Hugh Ross Williamson, in 1955, and now elegantly reprinted, tells the true story. Concentrating on the last 6 months of James’s reign, it is a fascinating, albeit melancholy, chronicle."

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Francis Phillips reviews The English Cardinals. By Frs Nicholas Schofield & Gerard Skinner. Family Publications. £19. 50

The word “cardinal” and the phrase “prince of the Church”, with all their pomp and circumstance suggestiveness, raise the hackles of my Evangelical brother. Yet the men in this book, some saintly, some scholarly, others shrewd and sensible administrators, have all played their part in the Christian heritage of this country. The authors, priests in the Westminster archdiocese, relate a fascinating story in these brief essays which are lavishly illustrated, full of historical detail and brought alive by many anecdotes.

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Francis Phillips reviews John Henry Newman in His Time. Ed. Philippe Lefebvre & Colin Mason. Publications. £11. 95

"All those who are impatient to see John Henry Newman assume his rightful place as a Doctor of the Church will welcome this book. It is the first of a two-volume project and presents Newman in relation to his age; the second will explore aspects of his writings in greater detail. As such, it is aimed at a general readership rather than a scholarly one. Newman would have rejoiced at this, not because he cared for fame for its own sake, but because he loved the Church and, unusually for his times, when lay people were perceived as subordinate within a dominant clerical culture, recognised the pressing need for an educated, informed, confident and articulate Catholic laity."

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Francis Philips reviews John Gerard:The Autobiography of an Elizabethan

"I first heard of John Gerard years ago when I was day-dreaming during a history class; I have never forgotten the teacher’s electrifying description of his escape from the Tower of London; it was meant to be impregnable, yet here was a man whose daring and effrontery had been an overmatch for it. Reading this new edition of the autobiography, first written in Latin in 1609 and translated by Philip Caraman, has been a second, more detailed and more enduring history lesson."

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Review of Blessed Alexandrina da Costa, by Francis Phillips

"The subject of this short biography is one of those exemplary people whose true influence will only be fully known in heaven. Alexandrina Da Costa was born in Balasar, Portugal, in 1904; in 1918, eluding a drunken suitor she jumped from a window which gradually brought about a complete paralysis."

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Francis Phillips reviews The Confessions of St Augustine

"On holiday in Tunisia recently, I took St Augustine’s Confessions as my spiritual companion. After all, Tunisia is the site of ancient Carthage and it was at the renowned university of Carthage that Augustine studied and practised the art of rhetoric before his ambitions took him north to Rome. The Confessions is well worth re-reading; recounted in dramatic and mesmerising prose, it is a classic story of sin, grace and conversion that manages to be both timeless and contemporary at the same time."

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Francis Phillips reviews Saints of the English Calendar

"This book gives us for the first time all the saints in the new Calendar, approved in 2000. It is not intended as an antiquarian exercise. The splendid men and women in its pages are an intrinsic part of our national heritage; they helped form the Christian civilisation of our country over the centuries."

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Francis Phillips reviews Alfred Delp: Prison Writings

"Alfred Delp SJ, 1907-45, was a German Jesuit hanged by the Nazis on 2 February 1945 at Berlin-Plotzensee prison. He had been arrested the previous August, charged with being involved in the July Plot against Hitler. Although Delp was friends with members of the Kreisau Circle, which included some of the plotters, the charges against him were flimsy and he had hopes of being exonerated. However his judge, Roland Freisler, was notorious for his hatred of priests, especially Jesuits, so the outcome of his trial became a foregone conclusion. His execution, ironically, took place shortly before the collapse of the Third Reich itself."

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Francis Phillips reviews Edith Stein: Woman of Prayer, by Joanne Mosley

"The lives of saints are always a challenge. Edith, in particular, with her insight that women have to express their maternal and wifely gifts in some form, has much to say to modern western woman, who has lost sight of her destiny, her ‘feminine genius’ as the Holy Father calls it."

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Francis Phillips reviews John Paul the Great:Maker of the Post-Conciliar Church

"It is a sign of the Holy Father’s enormous spiritual prestige that the title ‘the Great’ is readily conferred on him by his contemporaries, long before the verdict of history. Reading the eight essays in this collection, it is clear he was and is a providential choice as pontiff."

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Francis Phillips reviews Married Saints and Blesseds through the Centuries, by Ferdinand Holbock

"In the Preface to this book the question is raised: ‘The majority of the faithful are married. How is it, though, that there are so few married people who have been raised to the honours of the altar?’ The answer, as we know, is that the process of canonisation is long and costly; religious orders are much more likely to have the resources needed for this process. To correct this inequity our present Pope, John Paul II, has always been a champion of the holiness of married love and it is he who has provided the spur to several recent beatifications of married people."

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Martin Blake reviews BENEDICT AND THERESE, By Dwight Longenecker

These saints could hardly be more different, on the surface. Benedict the 6th Century patriarch who founded the most prolific religious order destined to last for more than fifteen centuries; Therese the hidden Carmelite nun who died nine years after entering the convent at the age of fifteen in 1888. Benedict of whom we know practically nothing; Therese of whom we know almost everything, and the most photographed saint of modern times.

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Dr Pravin Thevathasan reviews Princesses of the Kingdom, Jacinta Marto & Nellie Organ,
by Leo Madigan

This is a study of two young Catholic Children of the twentieth century. Blessed Jacinta of Fatima is now well known. Nellie - who lived most of her life in County Cork, Ireland - deserves to be better known. Jacinta died at the age of nine in 1920. Nellie was less than five when she died in 1908.