Amazing Grace: The Story of the Hymn

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

For much of his adult life, Captain John Newton saw no irony in being
both an English slave-ship captain and a practising Christian. In 1754,
after three decades in the slave trade, Newton retired to become a civil
servant, which he termed “a more humane calling.” His religious
convictions, however, eventually led him to a vocation in ministry,
where he became a leading Methodist preacher, a prolific pamphlet
writer, and a composer of hymns. At the height of his ministry, Newton
dedicated his career to the abolition of slavery—the practice from
which he had earned a living

for the first half of his adult life. In 1807, the British government
abolished slavery. Newton died that same year and has been honored ever
since as one of the English abolitionist movement’s pioneers. His most
famous hymn, “Amazing Grace,” has become an international anthem of
hope and deliverance.

This true tale of sin and salvation could easily have degenerated into
soap opera. Fortunately, Linda Granfield knows how to stand back and let
the facts tell the story. The depth of research in the text is admirable
and the prose tells the story without excuses or moralizing. Janet
Wilson’s illustrations are equally exceptional; each page beautifully
captures the era without affectation or melodrama. This book is a worthy
sequel to Granfield and Wilson’s previous collaboration, the
award-winning In Flanders Fields. Highly recommended.