The reign of Mary Tudor has been remembered as an era of sterile repression, when a reactionary monarch launched a doomed attempt to force Catholicism on an unwilling nation. Here, Eamon Duffy offers a fresh understanding of Mary’s regime that is neither inept nor backward-looking. Led by her cousin, Cardinal Reginald Pole, Mary’s church dramatically reversed the spiritual revolution imposed under the child king Edward VI. Even the most notorious and brutal aspect of the regime – the burning alive of more than 280 men and women for their religious beliefs, which seared the rule of ‘Bloody Mary’ into the protestant imagination – proved devastatingly effective. Only the death of the childless queen and her cardinal on the same day in November 1558 brought the protestant Elizabeth to the throne, and thereby changed the course of English history. Duffy makes a compelling argument that Reginald Pole was the architect behind the achievements of the Marian church. He examines the rationale behind the executions and argues that despite how horrific Mary Tudor’s persecution was, it was successful in achieving its objectives. Duffy argues for the enduring legacies of the Marian Church in providing a model for the Counter Reformation in Europe, in laying the foundations of Elizabethan Catholicism and in training the first generation of Elizabethan intellectuals. I read this book carefully - not a comfortable read - and can add nothing to the publishers précis of the book. A factual and fair retelling of affairs as they were during this time. Editor