This is less a biography of Edward VI than an academic study of the course of the English Reformation during Edward's six-year reign. Edward VI himself barely warrants a mention in this volume, as the momentum behind religious reform was managed almost entirely by the adults on his council, men such as Cranmer, Somerset and Northumberland. While an excellent look at the religious changes enacted in this period, MacCulloch excludes or hardly alludes to other significant events during Edward's rule, making this a very narrow history of his reign. ( )

Interesting among other things for arguing that Edward was not a sickly boy with tuberculosis but normally healthy for most of his life until a few months before his death ( )