There seems to be a strong current of interest in Jesus as a historical figure, set strictly in his age and milieu, and this scholarly book goes far to meet it. Professor Fredriksen subjects the Gospels to close scrutiny and upsets the conventional verdict on that of St John; she is also informative and detailed about Jewish messianic cults and the religious waves which periodically tended to sweep Israel - particularly under Roman occupation. Her conclusions, more or less, are that Jesus did believe himself to be the Messiah, that he thought the coming of the Kingdom of God was to hand, and that his death took place mainly because the Jewish priestly class feared he would provoke violence during the Passover in Jerusalem and thereby bring down Roman retaliation on their heads. (He was also alleged to have threatened the Temple with destruction, something which no orthodox Jew could tolerate.) The book is sober and undogmatic, but highly persuasive, even if some of its conclusions seem already familiar.
"Charlie Chaplin stayed here (the Slieve Donard Hotel) in 1921 . . . he was hiding himself away after divorcing his wife, only to learn that his true love, Hetty Kelly, had died in the meantime. The hotel . . . has framed the relevant page from the hotel register. Sandwiched between the signatures of Miss Montgomery from Co Dublin and Captain L. Scott-Taggart from Belfast is that of `Charles Chaplin, New York City'."
From Silver Linings, by Martin Fletcher