'Jesus Never Existed'- The book

[Caecilian]

I've started reading a book called Jesus Never Existed. The author is Kenneth Humphreys. I'm on p67, so lots more still to go.

The book seems to be well researched, but its insufficiently referenced, so its hard to tell for sure. Very interesting argument so far:

Not only did jesus not exist, but the whole story of 'his' life is a fiction created centuries after 'his' alleged birth. Early christians viewed christ as a spirit, not as a human being at all. The whole bible story of 'his' life is a cut-'n-paste job using elements of already existing mythology- mainly but not exclusively jewish.

Anyway, I'm wondering:

- If anyone here has read the book, and if so what d'ya think of the argument?

- If anyone knows who the hell Ken Humphreys is. He's described as a 'British academic' on the back cover. Not very informative.

- What other literature exists in this area, ideally stuff with proper academic referencing? I'm not looking for a reading list here- just a couple of recommendations.

Thanks in advance,

Caecilian