Amazing Grace: The Life of John Newton and the Surprising Story Behind His Song

This is such a good book! Very intriguing and interesting, with an amazing story. Perfect to book reports - Christian Biography.

This was a book!!!!

My son read this for a book report: said it was ok but drug out a bit. Overall he enjoyed it

Before reading this, I truly did not know the full story of not only Amazing grace but also the life and work of John Newton. The story setting made it an interesting read and made the life of John Newton come alive. Now whenever I hear or sing the song AMAZING GRACE, I will not fail to remember the story of the man behind the song.

John Newton had a hard life and yet a good life. He learned from his mistakes and capitalized on helping so many others. Transformation is difficult as it different from what we are used to. However, Mr Newton had a helper, God, to assist him and changed his life totally. He also changed the hearts of so many that he helped.

Moving story

I love that this book was based on historical research and years of study but written to read like a novel. It captivated me from the very first pages! If you like John Newton, the hymn “Amazing Grace,” and/or a good story, this book will not disappoint!

Excellent dramatic sense

Brings the true meaning of Grace to the surface. Wonderful read

I have been studying the life of John Newton for a couple of years now, and have learned a great deal from Bruce Hindmarch’s work, including a talk that he gave 2022. I’ve also read works by other authors, and John Newton’s letters and autobiography, and have built my own idea of Newton’s personality. That may have led me to being slightly disappointed with this book. The John Newton in this book is different to how I had imagined him, and that distracted me a little from what is otherwise an excellent bringing to life of this important character from history.I did enjoy this book, but not quite as much as I’d hoped (sorry Bruce), but his knowledge of Newton’s life still vastly exceeds my own.

This is an excellent novelistic presentation of the life of John Newton. The thing that makes it so much more than a novel is the meticulous scholarship and research behind it. In the body of the work this is not intrusive, but in the appendix the authors (Bruce Hindmarsh and Craig Borlase) give a thorough listing of all the source material they worked with. Bruce Hindmarsh, in particular, has made the study of the life and witness of John Newton a major part of his life's work (see his earlier scholarly work 'John Newton and the English Evangelical Tradition').Readers who are looking for a focus on Newton's later work as a minister should be alerted to the fact that the first two thirds of this book deal with the earlier part of his life. In particular, the details about the slave trade were a real eye-opener to me. Most stories of Newton's life that I have read have rushed over this period, and have also paid little attention to the fact that Newton continued to work as a slave trader for some years after his conversion - even spending a lot of time in prayer and Bible study in the cabin of the slave ship of which he was the captain. Later, of course, he came to a genuine repentance for this, but it was a healthy reminder to me that we all have our blind spots, especially when they are reinforced by the culture around us.I thoroughly enjoyed this and would highly recommend it.