Converts
From Oscar Wilde to Muriel Spark, Why So Many Became Catholic in the 20th Century
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Yale University Press
Published:25th Nov '25
Should be back in stock very soon
Why did Catholicism attract so many unlikely converts in Britain during the twentieth century?
The twentieth century is understood as an era of growing, inexorable secularism, yet in Britain between the 1890s and the 1960s there was a marked turn to Rome. In the first half of the century, Catholicism became an intellectual and spiritual fashion attracting more than half a million converts, including fascinating artists, writers, and thinkers. What drew these men and women to join the church, and what difference did conversion make to them?
Melanie McDonagh examines the lives of these notable converts from the perspective of their faith. For the Decadent circle of Aubrey Beardsley and Oscar Wilde—who converted on his deathbed—artists such as Gwen John and David Jones, the philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe, and novelists including G. K. Chesterton, Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, and Muriel Spark, Catholicism offered stability in increasingly febrile times. McDonagh explores their lives and influences, the reaction to their conversions, and the priests who initiated them into their faith.
“McDonagh writes scintillating, witty, probing intellectual history that is also extremely moving.”—Jackie Wullschläger, Financial Times
A Financial Times Book of the Year 2025
“It is absorbing to read the vividly described cultural setting of the lives that Melanie McDonagh explores.”—Christopher Howse, Telegraph
“A rich and rewarding study: elegant in style, humane in its judgments, and alive to the multiplicity of paths that led modern Britons to Rome.”—Paula Byrne, Sunday Times
“Groundbreaking.”—Mary Kenny, Irish Independent
“Authoritative and . . . entertaining.”—John Banville, Irish Times
A Tablet Book of the Year 2025
“[The book] does justice to its cast of characters [and] demonstrates not only why the floodgates opened for a few decades, but also why the stream has never quite dried up.”—Dan Hitchens, New Statesman
“Absorbing.”—Francis Wilson, Spectator
“Lively and absorbing.”—The Standard
“Wonderful.”—Levi Roach, The Tablet
“Superbly researched and argued. . . . [Mcdonagh] has illuminated [these converts] with a compassionate wisdom that will surely have more heads and hearts heading for Rome.”—Rory Knight Bruce, The Field
“This book, for convert and cradle alike, is essential reading for anyone wishing to explore the movements of the heart that have led so many interesting people to embrace Rome in the land of Mary’s Dowry.”—Thomas Edwards, Catholic Herald
“This is a sprightly and learned study of a modern British cultural phenomenon which over seventy years or so helped to restore Catholicism to a central place in national life after four centuries. Melanie McDonagh presents her formidably varied cast of characters to us with imaginative sympathy for the emotional strengths and interesting array of weaknesses that ushered them into a new home in the Catholic Church.”—Diarmaid MacCulloch, author of Lower than the Angels: A History of Sex and Christianity
“This is a wonderful book, beautifully written and chock-full of fascinating people. McDonagh brings a totally new perspective on these well-trodden biographies.”—Stephen Bullivant, author of Nonverts: The Making of Ex-Christian America
“A lively treatment of a rich topic, vigorously and trenchantly written. McDonagh has put her finger on a strong current within British intellectual and artistic life, not previously identified or explored.”—Eamon Duffy, author of The Stripping of the Altars
ISBN: 9780300266078
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
368 pages