The Book of Books

By MELVYN BRAGG

Published by Hodder & Stoughton in TPB on 1 May 2011 / RRP $39.99

"You may be a Christian. You may be anti-Christian, or of another religion, or none. You may be an atheist fundamentalis and think the Bible is monstrous, a book to be dismissed or derided.

But whoever you are in the English-speaking world, I hope to persuade you to consider that the King James Bible has driven the making of that world over the last 400 yeasr, often in the most unanticipated ways."
- Melvyn Bragg

2011 is the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. This is its definitive history.

The King James Bible is both the standard scriptural text and, for centuries, the bestselling book in the English-speaking world. Melvyn Bragg reveals the political, linguistic and religious influences the Bible has had throughout the centuries.

This is the story of the 300 year fight to get the Bible into the English language, and the grisly deaths of many of the Oxford scholars involved in its translation. It is the story of Henry VIII’s Reformation and James of Scotland’s determination for his version to become England’s bible when he assumed the throne. It is the extraordinary story of William Tyndale - a master of English to rival Shakespeare.

The political history of the Bible is equally remarkable. It was used as a source of propaganda in the English Civil War, and has inspired debates about democracy and justice from the American War of Independence to the speeches of Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy. And then there is Its impact on culture, above all on language. The King James Bible has had a profound effect on the English language over the last 400 years.

This is the definitive history of one of the most influential books in the history of the world.

About the Author

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