One of the best loved and most often sung hymns in North America, this hymn expresses John Newton's personal experience of conversion from sin as an act of God's grace. At the end of his life, Newton (b. London, England, 1725; d. London, 1807) said, “There are two things I'll never forget: that I was a great sinner, and that Jesus Christ is a greater Savior!” This hymn is Newton's spiritual autobiography, but the truth it affirms–that we are saved by grace alone–is one that all Christians may confess with joy and gratitude.

And then...we find out about a major thing that happened, and my heart just broke into a billion pieces and 100% understood why Grace, Ben, and Lottie acted and kept acting the way they did. I understand because I have lived it and everything is so realistically portrayed I had tears running down my face. Score taken from https://hymnstogod.org/Hymn-Files/Public-Domain-Hymns/A-Hymns/Amazing-Grace-Excell/AmazingGraceExcell.pdf Amazing Grace” is a powerful hymn of profession of God’s grace and mercy, and can be sung throughout the liturgical year. It could be sung as a hymn of response to the assurance of pardon, as a confession of faith, or after a sermon on salvation or grace. It’s also often sung as a hymn of comfort in times of distress, and so could work well as a response to lament, or as a hymn of assurance at funerals.Fran Littlewood has created a spectacularly glorious debut novel. I think every woman who reads this will recognise a little of Grace in herself (and if you haven’t yet, don’t worry, she’s coming) because she really has perfectly captured the struggles of the peri menopausal middle aged woman; juggling everything and watching helplessly as the balls come crashing down. Thank you to the author Fran Littlewood, publishers Henry Holt and Macmillan Publishing, and as always NetGalley, for an advance digital copy of AMAZING GRACE ADAMS.

Ioan Gruffudd as William Wilberforce, Romola Garai as Barbara Spooner, Benedict Cumberbatch as William Pitt and Albert Finney as John Newton.PIPES AND DRUMS AND THE MILITARY BAND OF THE ROYAL SCOTS DRAGOON GUARD". The Official UK Charts Company . Retrieved 17 December 2021. I LOVED Grace Adams! With all my heart! As a woman of a certain age she was so relatable. She could have been me. I could have been her. She was funny and frank, forthright and feisty. But as the story unfolds and her layers are shed you realise that there is so, so much more to this remarkable woman. Her rivers run deep and I felt my heart breaking for her as the circumstances of her life are slowly revealed.

Once upon a time, life was easier, not quite as messy as it is these days for them. Once upon a time Grace was amazing, and so was her life. As a polyglot, doors were opened for her, and then her life changed. Hearts were broken. Mistakes have been made by all. Time has passed and Grace has regrets, but is desperate to prove to her daughter that she loves her. That she is not her enemy. That they are still a family. Never did I see coming the emotion that permeates Fran Littlewood’s debut novel. I went into Amazing Grace Adams expecting an almost absurdist, satirical portrayal of a middle-aged woman on the verge of snapping, and though I did find some of that, I was also rewarded with a thoughtful and sensitive story of a mother fighting to regain her family and her life. Before Grace’s teacher announced that the class would be putting on the play Peter Pan, the author tells the reader a lot about Grace. How do the words and pictures in the first half of the story help you understand what Grace is like? How would you describe her in your own words? Interesting factoid: the state of healthcare in those days. Wilberforce was given opium most of his life for his GI tract ailments. They called it “calico guts” but today it would probably be diagnosed as ulcerative colitis. Also, King George III, famous for his episodes of madness, was given a concoction that included arsenic---which, it turns out, actually induced episodes of insanity. And, writes the author, “as a matter of course, the monarch’s scalp was shaved so that the harmful ‘humours’ might more easily be drawn out of the regal cranium.” This was a famous MP and the King so presumably they were receiving the cutting edge technology.A ponderous lesson in overcoming prejudice overwhelms this insubstantial story about friendship and parental short-sightedness. Billy's parents' high hopes for their son (``My Billy is going to be a Continue reading » As with most debut authors, this author too throws in everything plus the kitchen sink into her book. There are way too many themes, and most of them aren’t really necessary for the main storyline. They just end up diluting the main point of the book, which is that of a mother desperately wanting to connect with her teenaged daughter again. Newton's biographers and Newton himself does not put a name to this episode other than a "fit" in which he became unresponsive, suffering dizziness and a headache. His doctor advised him not to go to sea again, and Newton complied. Jonathan Aitken called it a stroke or seizure, but its cause is unknown. (Martin [1950], pp. 140–141.)(Aitken, p. 125.) The writing in “Amazing Grace Adams” is truly amazing, with powerful, multi-sensory descriptions of everything from blisters to childbirth. For instance, here’s how the eponymous protagonist feels as she trudges for miles through London in the heat of a summer afternoon: “she is being seared across her scalp, along her shoulders, down the front of her newly liver-spotted chest. The impression is she is being cooked alive.”