MATTHEW: The Story of a Faith Stronger Than Death [Paperback]

This book tells the story of a vicarage family and in particular their response when ten year old Matthew is tragically killed while on holiday in Austria. It grapples with all the human questions of how such a thing could happen. Reviewing any book born out of someone else's personal experience is never easy as there is so much of themselves communicated in it. However, this book has something very positive to recount, out of a seemingly tragic situation. The characters involved are easy to identify with and reassuringly British in a book market seemingly swamped by American imports. It is a moving and inspiring read.

The story told by Bob Jackson in Matthew is of a tragedy which struck an ordinary vicarage family in Sheffield, but its overriding theme is one not so much of loss but of growing joy in living out God's promise of everlasting life. This joy is not of the superficial 'Hallelujah, anyway' type, and how disaster led Bob to the street children of Calcutta makes fascinating reading. A meeting with Mother Teresa, and the helpful words she gave, end this lovely book.

Moving story of a family coping with their 10 year old child's accidental death. How charitable giving helped the healing process.

Matthew was a bright ten year old from a vicarage family in Sheffield having the best holiday of his life with his family in Austria - when he fell and was killed. His father the Rev Bob Jackson, tells how he and his wife asked the inevitable question "Why?" When tragedy struck they found their special calling did not protect them from the grief, doubts and self-recrimination. But their faith transformed the way they coped with it.

Bob Jackson has written two other books: a comic novel 'Till The Fat Lady Sings' and 'Higher then the Hills', the biography of Lok Bahadur Tamang, which was published in 1999. He is currently Vicar of St Mary and Holy Apostles in Scarborough, Yorkshire.