ALEXANDER THE CORRECTOR
By Julia Keay
HarperCollins. 269 pages. £16.99
ISBN 0 00 713195 X
If you enjoyed Simon Winchester's The Surgeon of Crawthorne, you'll love Alexander the Corrector - the 'tormented genius who unwrote the Bible'. Written in a similar vein (Simon Winchester has given the book a commendation), this is the story of Alexander Cruden who compiled Cruden's Concordance, which, though 2.5 million words long, is still in print 300 years later.
Generations have accepted the diagnosis that Cruden was mad, but Julia Keay restores his reputation by grippingly retelling the story of this lonely and misunderstood genius, who was put away as a cover for the wrongs and wilfulness of others. He was a man of his times who longed to prove himself, a biblically principled student, an avid distributor of tracts, a man of prayer (he died while praying), and a devoted servant of the Lord.
