This is a vigorous insider's account of five churchmen and theologians prominent in the movement that transformed the face of Christendom. The author emphasises especially the political dimension of the reformation, and with it the emancipation of lay people. He corrects caricatures, without portraying plaster saints. This is a religious biography with a message for today, lest we forget.

Reading this was a joy, it was short and witty, containing enough detail to be obviously informative and well researched yet it spoke in non-academic language expressing its message easily, confidently and vividly. It was easy to be drawn into the story as the pace was quick, well structured and modern in its approach.

Christopher Catherwood's fluent style brings out the broad sweep of a spiritual movement which transcended national barriers and has left a permanent mark on Europe and in the wider world. He shows how five men of very different personality and outlook could all be caught up in the same experience of a life transformed by the power of God. The portraits are painted "warts and all" but the message is clear - God can and does use the weak and imperfect things of this world to proclaim his message of salvation in Christ to all who believe.

Christopher Catherwood, a writer abreast of ongoing historical study of the period and aware of the spiritual issues hanging on the chain of events, tracks five major players from the cradle to the grave: Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Cranmer, Knox. Each in his way was a watershed figure, and Catherwood's vivid profiling of them will help to keep their memory green.