Mother Teresa: Beyond the Image by Anne Sebba, Orion £6.99. Two major biographies of Mother Teresa appeared in the year of her death. This is the unauthorised version by Anne Sebba, a Jewish author who, while full of admiration for Mother's achievement, took seriously some of the criticism she attracted. Reviewing the hardback edition in the Daily Telegraph, Peter Stanford wrote that although Mother Teresa mistrusted books and forbade their use by her novices, "I cannot help thinking she would have had a sneaking regard for Anne Sebba, who has provided her with a meticulous, balanced and forthright biography".
A Priestless People? A New Vision for the Catholic Priesthood by Vincent McLaughlin, Canterbury Press, £7.99.
The late Vincent McLaughlin was one of the many priests who resigned his orders following Humanae Vitae. Here he argues that the Church's appeals to young men to come forward for the priesthood have manifestly proved ineffective, and calls on the Church to revise its regulations on celibacy The afterword is by the author's widow Imelda, who writes: "My greatest sorrow in life has been to see how Vincent was rejected so often by the official Church."
Equal but Different: Male and Female in Church and Family by Michael Harper, Hodder & Stoughton £8.99. Fr Harper is Dean of the new British Antiochian Orthodox dean
ery and chairman of the International Charismatic Consultation on World Evangelisation. This might seem an odd combination, and indeed many people were astonished when Harper, a well-known Anglican evangelical, recently converted to Orthodoxy. In this book. first published three years ago and now revised, he assesses the whole controversial topic of male and female roles in the Church and argues that as a result of ordaining women priests the Church of England has lost all hope of reunion with Rome and Orthodoxy. The foreword is by the Rt Rev Richard Chartres, Bishop of London, who says: "For Christians there should be no debate about the equality of men and women. Questions arise when this is equality is construed as virtual interchangeability rather than complementariry."