Servant of slaves : a biographical novel of John Newton / [print]
Grace Irwin.
- Grand Rapids : Eerdmans, [(c)1961.
- 437 pages ; 23 cm
Author Grace Irwin recounts the powerful story of historical figure John Newton, who for a time was a sailor on ships engaged in the slave trade and then converted to Christianity at 23, eventually becoming an Anglican cleric and the author of a number of hymns (with poet William Cowper), including "Amazing Grace". Irwin's novel weaves Newton's story using third-person narrative interspersed with imagined dialogue which, fortunately, is skillfully done so as to engage the reader in the story rather than take them out of it. Newton's own writing or recorded conversation appears on almost every page. The reader may be assured that if he finds anything unbelievable of adventure or coincidence, anything excessive, either sensual or spiritual, anything improbable in emotion or devotion, that part of the book is provably factual, even understated.