The Book of Praises

Reviews / Votes

'This book is excellent beyond all expectation. The small wood engravings are as lyrical as Blake's for Virgil, and the printing in black for English and in red for Hebrew is perfectly balanced. I had long known that Roger Wagner was an interesting poet as well as a striking and brilliant painter, but I had not dreamed of such a coming together of his talents as this. [It]...makes one purr with pleasure. This is a book of an extraordinary and coherent beauty.' -- Peter Levi, Oxford Professor of Poetry 'There is something medieval, in a complimentary sense, about this project. Its detail, its completeness, its scholarship...are extraordinary. The reader may use it as a work of devotion: if he does so he will be inspired in part, by the far greater devotion of the author.' -- Charles Moore, The Daily Telegraph 'We all have our favourites among translations of the Psalms. Wagner is a recognised poet of lapidary quality, and the very act of translation brings with it a fresh understanding of the universal application of these pro-found hymns. They cannot be translated or depicted too often, if an artist and linguist of Roger Wagner's capacities is around to do it. That will never be often.' -- Pamela Tudor Craig, Church Times 'Here is a real treasure. Roger Wagner offers us not one translation but two. His gift as an artist for translating words into images is as important as his gift as a poet with the words themselves.' -- Malcolm Guite