Who, I ask you, wants to drag his bones out of the earth, reclothed in flesh which, in some foul magic of reversal, is regurgitated by the worms, in order that his eyes may see God? Who, I ask you, wants to live for ever?

Sadoc son of Azor, a retired shipping clerk lying diseased and dying on the outreaches of the Roman Empire, sets down for future generations a tale of epic proportions: he is charged with recounting no less an event than the birth of Christianity. And what an account it is – the story of a religion of love, born into the cruelties of the kingdom of the wicked.

The Kingdom of the Wicked is one of Anthony Burgess's most ambitious novels. Its ancient setting, recreated in vivid and meticulous detail, is rendered new in this stunning account of the Roman Empire and its clashes with Christianity.