The inspiring life stories of eight single-minded, influential Christian men are well told, along with the author's comments on what we may "glean" from them, in this newly republished book by Herbert Lockyer (1886-1984), highly honoured pastor, teacher and author of over 50 books. "Stirring deeds and extraordinary accomplishments embroidered their lives", writes the author, "and now kindle in our hearts the desire to emulate their faith, their sanctity and their courage". The eight "Fascinating Figures" are Martin Luther, John Wesley, C H Spurgeon, John Bunyan and four Scotsmen, George Wishart, John Knox, David Livingstone and Robert Murray McCheyne, selected as "outstanding and strategic witnesses for Christ in their own time", who still speak to us today. Of course their biographies are often told and pretty well known, but Lockyer does them justice, and this little book will certainly inform and uplift people still unfamiliar with them. Do be advised that it's written from a strongly, even aggressively Protestant point of view, with regular condemnations of "modernism", contemporary approaches to the Bible and even ecumenism. There is a serious historical mistake in the chapter on John Knox (pages 42 and 43), where Lockyer clearly confuses two royal Maries, Mary Queen of Scots and Mary Tudor (Queen Mary I, daughter of Henry VIII). While it is true that Knox had several "run-ins" with Mary Queen of Scots, it was actually Mary I who gained the nickname "Bloody Mary", on account of her harsh treatment of Protestants. The editors should surely have corrected this bad error.