The bizarre and fascinating story of Alexander Cruden, who single-handedly compiled the monumental dictionary/index/gazetteer to the Bible, Cruden's Concordance - still going strong 260 years later.

Cruden's Concordance to the Bible was a monumental achievement; at 2.5 million words, it is four times the length of the Bible itself and in nearly three hundred years it has never been superseded. Yet Alexander Cruden is remembered today not so much for his mighty work as for the widespread belief that he was mad.

Born in Aberdeen in 1699, as a young man he was cast into an asylum...