Richard Morison (c. 1513–56) is best known as a polemicist and a minor Henrician courtier during the 1530s. Tracey A. Sowerby's study of him, however, contends that Morison was far more important than his reputation among historians has heretofore credited him. Morison had respected careers as a scholar, politician, Reformer, diplomat, and even as a dissident exile in the reign of Mary. Two themes permeate Morison's activities – his humanism and his evangelical beliefs. For Sowerby, Morison was a good exemplar of the leading evangelical scholars and courtiers of the early English Reformation. As such, his life and writings shed light on a number of contested issues concerning the reign of Henry viii and the Henrician Reformation. Sowerby's research on Morison supports the previous work of Rory McEntegart and Alec Ryrie that asserts that from the mid-1530s through the early 1540s, the religious situation in England was in flux and open to debate. Confessional lines had not yet been firmly drawn and Henry viii was also undecided about his own beliefs. Morison, himself, had religious opinions some of which were Lutheran and others that were Reformed. These fluid conditions gave people like Morison room to manoeuvre. It has also been common among historians to interpret the events of courtly politics in terms of ruthless factional struggles. But as Sowerby shows, Morison managed to stay out of trouble at the Henrician court despite being an adherent of Thomas Cromwell and an open evangelical. It has also been common for historians to classify Henry viii as a tyrant. Morison's experiences as a polemicist for Henry viii contradict that characterisation. Clearly Morison's polemical tracts promoted Morison's evangelical agenda as much as they promoted Henry viii's royal supremacy, yet the supposedly tyrannical king did not put a stop to his activities. Morison was no mercenary scribbler and Henry viii was no Stalin or Hitler, which is not to say that the king was a paragon of virtue. Sowerby's study of Morison is a welcome and useful addition and complement to the work of Ethan Shagan, Alec Ryrie, Rory McEntegart and the post-revision interpretation of the English Reformation.