In 1998, reaction to the Pocket Canons came in Biblical proportions. The simplicity of the idea, the quality of the introductions and the appeal of the format and design made the series an enormous international success.

Collected together for the first time, this anthology of these introductions features a wonderfully diverse group of writers, each of whom provides considered, personal and sometimes controversial responses to individual books of the Bible, be it Bono on Psalms, AS Byatt on the Song of Solomon, Louis de Bernieres on Job or the Dalai Lama on the Epistles.

About the Author
Richard Holloway was Bishop of Edinburgh and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church. A former Gresham Professor of Divinity and Chairman of the Joint Board of the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen, he is a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His books include On Forgiveness, Looking in the Distance, Godless Morality, Doubts and Loves, Between the Monster and the Saint and Leaving Alexandria, which won the PEN/Ackerley Prize 2013 and was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize 2013. Richard Holloway has written for many newspapers in Britain, including The Times, Guardian, Observer, Herald and the Scotsman. He has also presented many series for BBC television and radio. David Grossman is the author of nine internationally acclaimed novels and a number of children's books. Grossman has been presented with numerous awards including the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France), and he won the International Man Booker Prize with A Horse Walks into a Bar. He lives with his wife and children in a suburb of Jerusalem. A.S. Byatt was renowned internationally for her novels and short stories, including the Booker Prize-winning Possession, The Biographer's Tale and the Man Booker-shortlisted The Children's Book. A distinguished critic as well as a writer of fiction, she was appointed CBE in 1990 and DBE in 1999. Peter Ackroyd is an award-winning author of novels including Hawksmoor, Chatterton and The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde, biographies of Ezra Pound, Blake and Dickens among others, and acclaimed non-fiction bestsellers London: The Biography and Thames: Sacred River. He has won the Whitbread Biography Award, the Royal Society of Literature's William Heinemann Award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Guardian Fiction Prize, the Somerset Maugham Award and the South Bank Prize for Literature. He holds a CBE for services to literature. Born in 1934, Alasdair Gray graduated in design and mural painting from the Glasgow School of Art. Since 1981, when Lanark was published by Canongate, he authored, designed and illustrated seven novels, several books of short stories, a collection of his stage, radio and TV plays and a book of his visual art, A Life in Pictures. In November 2019, he received a Lifetime Achievement award by the Saltire Society. He died in December 2019, aged eighty-five. Nick Cave has been performing music for more than forty years and is best known as the songwriter and lead singer of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, whose latest album Ghosteen was widely received as their best work ever. Cave's body of work also covers a wider range of media and modes of expression including film score composition and writing of novels. His recent Conversations events and Red Hand Files website have seen Cave exploring deeper and more direct relationships with his fans. Richard Holloway was Bishop of Edinburgh and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church. A former Gresham Professor of Divinity and Chairman of the Joint Board of the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen, he is a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His books include On Forgiveness, Looking in the Distance, Godless Morality, Doubts and Loves, Between the Monster and the Saint and Leaving Alexandria, which won the PEN/Ackerley Prize 2013 and was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize 2013. Richard Holloway has written for many newspapers in Britain, including The Times, Guardian, Observer, Herald and the Scotsman. He has also presented many series for BBC television and radio. Darcey Steinke is the author of five novels including Sister Golden Hair, Jesus Saves, Up Through the Water, Milk and Suicide Blonde, and a memoir Easter Everywhere. Her books have been translated into ten languages. @Darcey Steinke | darceysteinke.com Karen Armstrong is one of the world's leading commentators on religious affairs, and has been described by the Financial Times as 'one of our best living writers on religion'. She spent seven years as a Roman Catholic nun in the 1960s, before leaving for a career as a writer and broadcaster. Armstrong is the best-selling author of over 20 books and a passionate campaigner for religious liberty, and has addressed members of the United States Congress and the Senate and has participated in the World Economic Forum.

Reviews
Readers who have now lost their slim Canongate 'Canons', or never saw them should now cry hallelujah . . . the prefaces have returned, with extra items, as a 33-essay volume . . . spend your Easter with Canongate's extremely good book. * * Independent * *
Like the best conversation: intellectually rigorous and controversial, yet always alert to the profound and enduring significance of these ancient stories for today's rather more fractured, dislocated humanity. * * Metro * *
It's worth the cover price just to see such an extraordinary collection of names gathered on the same contents page. Nowhere else will you find Nick Cave rubbing shoulders with the Dalai Lama, or Bono and Joanna Trollope, Mordecai Richler, Peter Ackroyd, Will Self, Ruth Rendell and many others . . . Overwhelmingly, these introductions kindle a desire to look at the original texts with fresh eyes. * * Observer * *
Relish the way [it] demonstrate[s] the Bible's supreme status as a work of myth and poetry and its inadequacies as a factual discourse. * * Times Educational Supplement * *
Offers a series of thought-provoking essays, rigorously argued in a multitude of voices . . . Invigorating. * * Daily Mail * *



Book Information
ISBN 9781841957487
Author Richard Holloway
Format Paperback
Page Count 416
Imprint Canongate Books
Publisher Canongate Books
Weight(grams) 300g
Dimensions(mm) 199mm * 130mm * 26mm