This is a valuable contribution not only to our knowledge of the history of religion in Britain during the Second World War – in itself a seriously neglected field – but also to the continuing debate over the extent (or, rather, the limits of) secularisation and the continuing relevance and vitality of religion within British culture and society during the first half of the twentieth century. Using a rich variety of sources, including parish magazines, local archives, mass observation records and, above all, carefully conducted oral history interviews, the author examines both the ministry and role of the clergy and churches in wartime Birmingham, and the nature of popular religion in the city during the war. He examines the important role played by the churches in maintaining social networks during wartime, and also reveals the way in which clergy modelled their pastoral work on the Home Front between 1939 and 1945, especially during the blitz, upon the experience of chaplains to the forces during the First World War. Undoubtedly, however, the most significant and original aspect of the book is its analysis and evaluation of popular religion in wartime Birmingham. Drawing in particular upon oral history, and following the instructive examples of the work of Jeffrey Cox, Sarah Williams and Callum Brown, the author clearly demonstrates that ‘diffusive’ and ‘discursive’ Christianity remained not only intact but also influential in wartime Birmingham. Evidence of popular religion in Birmingham between 1939 and 1945 indicates the persistence of a facility with Christian language and concepts, a continuing respect for Christian idioms and a popular theology and understanding of the war in which a version of Christianity helped to provide a sense of meaning and purpose. Nurtured especially by hymns and by prayers learned in childhood and at Sunday School, such religion stood at some distance from clerical teaching and orthodox doctrine. It was, however, deliberately chosen – from a variety of sources, and for reasons of personal and social utility – and was combined with a ‘wartime air-raid shelter spirituality’. ‘Certainly up until 1945’, the author concludes, ‘Christianity still captivated and informed British popular religious life.’ Indeed, he suggests, the continuing vitality of wartime religion may partly explain the still neglected revival of religion in Britain in the 1950s. The structure and style of the text still reflect – perhaps a little too clearly – the book's origin as a doctoral thesis. It remains, however, an important challenge to scholars to undertake similar analyses of ‘wartime religion’ in other cities, thus facilitating additional comparative perspectives.