For several years, the students and staff of Ridley Hall, the Anglican theological college in Cambridge, have compiled a book of daily readings for the 48 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter Day. Sold directly to churches by former students now in ministry, it has been an important way of raising funds for the training of future ordinands, youth and pastoral workers. This is Ridley's third Lent book in partnership with Canterbury Press. A team of ordinands and some of the teaching staff consider some of the characters we meet in the pages of the Bible. In their ways, they all model an aspect of faith and discipleship, but they are as human and fallible as we are. The Bible is nothing if not honest in its depiction of human nature and shows how even the most unpromising material can be transformed in God's purposes.