John Bunyan

John Bunyan was a Bedfordshire tinker who preached without a licence after the Restoration and spent twelve years in Bedford jail for it, supporting his family by making laces and writing. The Pilgrim’s Progress, begun in prison, follows Christian from the City of Destruction through the Slough of Despond, Vanity Fair and Doubting Castle to the Celestial City, in the plainest English ever put to allegory. It was the most read book in English after the Bible for two centuries, and the one book in many cottages. Grace Abounding is his spiritual autobiography. He died of a chill caught riding through rain to reconcile a father and son.