A noble theme, a skillful writer

Timothy Dudley-Smith is the greatest hymn writer of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Gray and Music have demonstrated his superb qualities as a poet and as an inspiration to contemporary Christianity throughout the world. In this admirable account of his work, they have set it in context, relating the preoccupations of his life to the political and social world in which he lives; and they have added commentaries on many of the hymns that explains their extraordinary ability to stir the heart and satisfy the mind. This will be the definitive account for many years.' J. R. Watson Emeritus Professor of English, University of Durham, UK Co-Editor of the Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology