Simon Webb

John Cosin Simon Webb

Sometimes irascible and intolerant, John Cosin suffered years of poverty and exile before he became bishop of Durham in 1660. Simon Webb's new biography, the first for over a century, attempts to give equal weight to the different aspects of Cosin's character: incorrigible bookworm, gifted administrator and re-builder of the diocese after the ravages of the Interregnum. Simon's book also takes a fresh look at the story that Cosin possessed a secret box, the contents of which, if revealed, would have changed the course of British history.