Church of England Common Worship Prayer Book, 2000

“For more years than he cares to remember, Birdsall has remained faithful to no more than a dozen typefaces: Bell, Bodoni and Eric Gill’s Sans, Joanna and Modern among them. He has experimented with more contemporary faces, he says, but finds them usually flawed, so sticks with the old workhorses, all of which have strong personalities. 
Indeed, Birdsall selected Gill Sans, with its 'wonderful italic’, for his much-revered redesign of the Church of England’s Common Worship prayer book in 2000. He felt so strongly about the typeface that he has said he would not have done the job if the client hadn’t accepted it.”

— Mike Dempsey for Design Week, July 2002