People's pilgrim The

John Bunyan was a remarkable man. It may seem strange to us today that someone could be held in prison for twelve long years just for refusing to stop preaching the gospel, but that is what happened. Barely escaping deportation, Bunyan used the time in squalid conditions to grow closer to God and start work on some of his famous books. Somehow, confined in his dirty, damp prison cell with little outside stimulus, Bunyan managed to pen The Pilgrim’s Progress, one of the acknowledged classics of English literature.

Bunyan came from a very ordinary background but he harnessed his gifts to become a preacher of such power that towards the end of his life thousands flocked to hear him. Yet his most powerful legacy is his writing: The Pilgrim’s Progress is the world’s second most printed book and has inspired thousands of Christians through the years.