'a cracking piece of writing that posits such a great idea - a pilgrimage to Judas' FRANK COTTRELL BOYCE

Judas: The most famous traitor in all of history. But who was he really - and what does he mean for us today?

In this fascinating historical and cultural biography, Peter Stanford examines that most vilified of Bible characters: Judas Iscariot, who famously betrayed Jesus with a kiss. Beginning with the gospel accounts, Stanford explores how for two thousand years the name Judas has been synonymous with betrayal.

But was Judas all bad, or might his vilification by Christianity be a miscarriage of justice? Might this treachery have been inspired not by the devil, but by God - part of a divine plan that made possible Jesus' death and resurrection? 'You'll have to decide,' as Bob Dylan sang in the sixties, 'Whether Judas Iscariot had God on his side'.

'Stanford says a lot about the many faces and other attributes of Judas, and does so very engagingly; his book manages to be fun as well as sometimes profound, and it is as much an enjoyable tour of Christian art and thought as an account of a 2000-year-old traitor' PROFESSOR DIARMAID MACCULLOCH, The Times

'I've been reading Peter Stanford's Judas. It's great. He's a beautiful writer' JON RONSON, BBC Radio 4

Peter Stanford is a features writer at the Daily and Sunday Telegraph titles, and contributes to the Independent, the Observer, the Daily Mail and the Catholic weekly, the Tablet, where he is a columnist. He has presented programmes on BBC 1, Channel 4 and Channel 5, as well as BBC Radios 2 and 4 and the BBC World Service. Peter is the author of numerous books, including The Devil - A Biography, Heaven - A Traveller's Guide to the Undiscovered Country, The She-Pope, and the polemical Catholics and Sex, which became an award-winning Channel 4 series.