Book review For all its faults this is a remarkable memoir

At 88, Pope Francis is the oldest pontiff for more than a century. Yet, after major surgery in 2023, and persistent knee problems that result in him using a wheelchair, he shows no sign of calling it a day. Now, he has decided that an autobiography, titled Hope, originally planned to be published after his death, should come out to coincide with the jubilee he has called for the Roman Catholic Church this year.

- Catherine Pepinster

As the first ever memoir by a living pope, Hope is a publisher's dream, with a rich backstory culminating with Francis's election in 2013. He recounts how, as Jorge Bergoglio, he grew up in a sprawling family, loved football and the tango, studied chemistry, then joined the Jesuit order and became a priest. After dallying with Peronism and enduring the Argentinian junta, he became the cardinal archbishop of Buenos Aires. Then Benedict XVI resigned and he was chosen to succeed him. Any conclave - as anyone who has watched the recent movie will know - is dramatic, but the 2013 papal election was particularly so.

Although Bergoglio came second in 2005 when Benedict XVI was elected, most people had either forgotten or assumed the cardinals would choose someone younger. But rather than that historic moment, Francis begins with his grandparents emigrating from Italy to Argentina in the 1920s after narrowly avoiding boarding a ship that subsequently sank.