The Man Born to be King

Transcendent. Poignant. Stirring. Powerful. Heart-breaking and deeply moving.

I have just read Dorothy L. Sayer’s The Man Born to be King. This is a twelve-play cycle on the life of Jesus Christ, written in 1941 and broadcast on BBC radio. The plays are extra-ordinary. I feel as if I could have been there. Her characterisations are rich, rounded and also true to the Bible. She has added depth, theology, explanation and background to the gospel narratives, and included an ingenious and completely believable solution to the question about why Judas betrayed Jesus. The plays about the passion draw on the chronology of events as suggested by Frank Morrison, in ‘Who Moved the Stone’ – a classic book, and one that means a lot to me. It was the book that first convinced me that the resurrection did truly happen.

The book includes notes on each of the twelve plays. I…