Will books - black ink on white paper - ever disappear completely? Let's face it, it can be painful to stare at a bright computer screen for any length of time!

Today it's difficult for us to realize how startlingly revolutionary a printed book must have seemed in the 16th century. William Tyndale, who first translated the Bible into English, certainly challenged the world view of the church at that time. He had many opponents, including those who thought ordinary people should not be allowed to read - only the church should interpret the Bible. Tyndale's reply was these famous words, that "If God spared him life, ere many years he would cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more of the scripture than he did." But would Tyndale have ever achieved his ambition if it had not been for the newfangled technology of the printing press?

Here is the opening of St John's Gospel in Tyndale's Bible, from one of only two surviving examples of the first edition. Most of the rest were burned. Tyndale translates the famous opening in these words:
"In the begynnynge was that worde, and that worde was with god: and god was that worde. The same was in the begynnynge with god. All thynges were made by it, and without it, was made noo thinge, that made was. In it was lyfe. And lyfe was the light of men. And the light shyneth in darcknes, and darcknes comprehended it not."

Words to turn the world upside down! And for the first time, people could read the message of Christmas for themselves.