In an age of faithlessness, spin and cynicism, how many of us would be prepared to stand on a ladder, a rope around our neck, facing a gruesome death for no apparent crime, and choose not to recant and live but to die for our beliefs? How many of us, like Thomas Garnet, would say, `I give my body to Caesar [James I] and my soul to God`? This compelling and finely researched compilation of the lives and state murders of Catholics from all walks of life in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries demands our attention as a reinforcement of Christian commitment and an antidote to indifference. Malcolm Pullan`s stated aim is to reach a general readership, and his text is full of historical background material and fascinating detail. He firmly believes that we should not consign England`s Catholic martyrs to some obscure corner of our consciousness. Their Faith lives still; they were true to it till death. Surely they did not die in vain.