So, in a final irony, one of Britain's best-known free-thinkers ends up rewriting chunks of the Bible, albeit with some interesting twists of his own. With its black cover, short chapters and lapidary style, it looks and sometimes reads like a modern version of the New Testament. Pullman has an extraordinary imagination, but this book sees him cutting down in the special-effects department. But he does not know that Jesus foresaw that such a church could, and often would, also become an instrument for evil and oppression. Lured by the prospect of establishing a major church and all the positive things that should come in its wake, Christ agrees.

This angel persuades Christ to preserve and present the sayings of Jesus, but only in such a way that they could one day form the basis of a great religion. This works well until the entrance of a dark, smooth-tongued stranger, identified by Christ as an angel – though whether good or fallen is left for readers to decide for themselves. Jesus is an itinerant preacher and miracle worker, while Christ is his devoted chronicler. The only truly inflammatory note in this challenging novel is the word 'scoundrel' in the title, given that the two main characters of Jesus and his twin brother Christ both come over as virtually blameless. If Jesus here sometimes sounds like a modern cult leader, advocating that his disciples cut ties with their own families – so what happens to their wives and children? – it's not Pullman's fault. Questionable statements that do appear, such as His referring to a Gentile woman as a 'little dog' or His self-proclaimed mission to set son against father and daughter against mother, are already there in the Good Book. For, on the evidence of this novel, the author says nothing bad about Jesus. Fanatics whose threats have recently occasioned Philip Pullman to require a guard both at home and when he speaks in public should pack up their Bibles and go home.

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