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In the popular imagination John Newton (1725-1807) is best known as the author of the celebrated hymn "Amazing Grace". But he also had one of the most colourful and influential lives in the religion and politics of the 18th century. In his youth he was a slave trader and a slave ship captain. His early adventures included being flogged as a deserter from the Royal Navy and imprisoned as a white slave to an African slave master. During a storm at sea he was converted and became an ordained clergyman. The two closest friendships of his life were with William Cowper the poet and William Wilberforce the abolitionist MP. With Cowper, he wrote many hymns including "Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken", "How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds" and "Amazing Grace". Newton became and remains a hero of the Evangelical revival. He was a formative influence on Charles Simeon and on William Wilberforce with whom he campaigned vigorously for the abolition of slavery. His influence was very wide indeed. Jonathan Aitken has had access to a great wealth of new unpublished material, notably Newton's diaries and the correspondence between Wilberforce and Newton.Aitken has already demonstrated his skill as a biographer with his books on Nixon and Colson but here, at last, he has found a subject in which his interests in history, politics and religion coincide.
