John Newton

Jonathan Aitken is a former MP and cabinet minister. He is now an author, biographer and broadcaster. In 1995, the court found him guilty of perjury in a celebrated case against the Guardian newspaper and he spent 18 months in Belmarsh Prison. He subsequently studied theology at Oxford and in 2019, he was ordained an Anglican priest. He is now a full-time prison chaplain in London. He is the author of an award-winning biography of President Richard Nixon and has written a number of critically acclaimed books for Bloomsbury Continuum – including a bestselling life of Margaret Thatcher (2013).

Acknowledgements
1 A Spiritual Upbringing
2 First Steps in Love and Seafaring
3 Press-ganged
4 Flogged and Degraded
5 Exchanged
6 Enslaved in Africa
7 Rescued by the Greyhound
8 Troublemaker and Blasphemer
9 In the Shadow of Death
10 False Dawns, More Storms and a Safe Landing
11 Londonderry, Love and a Liverpool Shipowner
12 Adventures on the Brownlow
13 Struggles of Books, Body and Soul
14 Marriage to Polly
15 Captain of the Duke of Argyle
16 First Voyage of the African
17 The End of a Seafaring Career
18 Unemployment, Inspiration and Prayer
19 Methodism and Materialism
20 Life in Liverpool
21 The Call to Ordination
22 The First Rejection
23 In Suspense
24 An Authentic Narrative
25 Ordained at Last
26 First Impressions of Olney
27 Parish Ministry
28 Pressure to Move: Praying with Polly
29 Prayer and Church History
30 Friendship with Cowper
31 Creativity and Crisis
32 Amazing Grace
33 What Happened to Amazing Grace
34 Winning Friends and Influencing People
35 Meddling in Politics
36 Family Life and Health Worries
37 Leaving Olney
38 Arriving in London
39 Family, Friends and Apologia
40 The Eclectic Society and the Messiah
41 Mentor to William Wilberforce
42 Correspondence with Wilberforce
43 Abolitionist Campaigner
44 Death of Polly
45 Declining Years and Continuing Influence
46 A Great Sinner and a Great Saviour
Epilogue
Source Notes
Bibliography
Index