[2] The Tablet was launched in 1840 by a Quaker convert to Catholicism, Frederick Lucas, 10 years before the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales.

[5] From 1936 to 1967, the review was edited by Douglas Woodruff, formerly of The Times, a historian and reputed wit whose hero was Hilaire Belloc.

A watershed came in 1968, when The Tablet took an editorial stance at odds with Pope Paul VI's encyclical Humanae vitae, which restated the traditional teaching against artificial contraception.

The paper continued to have a distinctive voice, consistently advocating further changes in the church's post-Vatican II life and doctrine.

"[3] In 2012 ITV journalist Julie Etchingham became the review's first guest editor, leading a special issue on the CAFOD charity.

[9] On succeeding Catherine Pepinster as editor on 12 July 2017, Brendan Walsh said: 'I will do all I can to cherish and protect its values and the quality of its journalism.