Simon Webb

The Life and Times of James Nayler, the 'Quaker Jesus' Simon Webb

'In the opinion of this biographer, James Nayler was not a blasphemer, a heretic, a sower of discord, a fool or a madman, but a genuine Quaker prophet who found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.' Tried by parliament, whipped, branded and bored through the tongue in the winter of 1656, James Nayler remains the most controversial figure among the early Quakers. Simon Webb's new biography sets the Yorkshireman's story in the context of his turbulent times, and incorporates recent discoveries about the life of the 'Quaker Jesus'.