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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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John Bunyan
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(1628–88) Preacher and author, son of an itinerant mender of pots and pans. He followed his father's trade until being drafted during the *English Civil War into the parliamentary army, a stimulating melting pot of *Puritan ideas. He found his own spiritual home with the *Baptists, becoming in the 1650s a preacher in his home town of Bedford. After the Restoration there were severe restrictions on *Nonconformists, and Bunyan spent 11 years in *Bedford jail (1661–72) for preaching without a licence. In prison he wrote his spiritual autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666). The same concept of a guilt-ridden, self-denying quest, turned now into fable, lies behind his greatest work, The *Pilgrim's Progress.
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