Pope Benedict made history by being the first Pope in over a thousand years to resign from office. The Catholic Church the world over was stunned. Worn out by the internecine warfare in the Vatican, by corruption in the Church and by an endless series of clerical sex scandals he decided that the resolution of all these problems was outside his power for a man of his age.

In this most touching and revealing book - the nearest Benedict will ever get to writing an autobiography - the author speaks with disarming honesty and humility of his inner life, his life of prayer and his firm belief in God. But he also addresses all the causes celebres which dogged his pontificate - The Vatileaks scandal, the error of readmitting a holocaust denier to full communion with the Church, his Regensburg speech which enraged Muslims, his childhood in Nazi Germany. He speaks of child molesting and other sexual scandals and how he bust a powerful gay mafia within the Vatican itself.

On a more personal level he writes with great warmth of his successor Pope Francis, who he admits has a popular touch, a star quality which he has lacked. He also writes beautifully of his love of Mozart.

This book comes as a final and fitting sequel to his previous works on Jesus of Nazareth.