Bible; The Story of the King James Version, 1611-2011, Gordon Campbell (Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 2010)xiii, 354pp., hardback, £16.99, US $24.95, ISBN 978 0 19 955759 2.

In 1604 King James convened a conference to discuss the grievances of Puritans within the Church of England.  On the second day, a proposal was made that there should be a new translation of the Bible because the existing translations were, in modern parlance, not fit for purpose.  James welcomed the proposal and 50 scholars worked for seven years to produce the Authorized Version which has won acclaim for its literary quality and has had a tremendous impact in the English speaking world over the centuries.

It was however far from a final version.  In this book, Gordon Campbell, Professor of Renaissance Studies at the University of Leicester and a prolific author, tells the extraordinary story of the after-life of the King James Bible which will be a revelation to many.  For its first 150 years thousand of errors were introduced by accident and even by design.  The tercentenary of the Authorized Version in 1911 itself led to a further round of changes to the text.

Campbell records the pre-Reformation translations and recent work in progress on the most influential book in the English speaking world which has known both adulation and depredation.  There are some 37 illustrations and extensive recommendations for further reading and index.  The book is assured of a wide readership.