On this date in 1628 John Bunyan was baptised. He’s best known for writing The Pilgrim's Progress. 10 facts about him:
His exact date of birth isn’t known, but we do know that his parents were called Thomas and Margaret, and that the family lived at Bunyan's End in the parish of Elstow, Bedfordshire.
His father was a tinker who travelled around the area mending pots and pans. His grandfather was a small trader who had at some point owned some land, which suggests that Bunyan’s assertion that his father's house was "of that rank that is meanest and most despised in the country" wasn’t strictly true.
Not much is known about his childhood. He went to a local school, though it’s not known which one, and also learned his father’s trade. His father also taught him to swear. He liked to read the popular books of the time, and suffered from nightmares.
He served in the Parliamentary army for three years in the early stages of the civil war. When he was 16, Parliament demanded that the town of Bedford must provide 225 soldiers, and Bunyan was one of them. There are few details about his service although he did write of one incident where a fellow soldier once took his place on watch and was shot in the head, which Bunyan interpreted as evidence that God was looking out for him. He also wrote that he fully indulged in “all manner of vice and ungodliness" while serving in the army.
His mother died in 1644, and during his military service, his father remarried and started a new family, so Bunyan moved from the family home to a cottage of his own where he took up his father’s trade again.
Soon after that, Bunyan got married. The date of his wedding isn’t known, and neither is his wife’s name. Bunyan’s writings only tell us that she was a pious woman and they weren’t well off: "not having so much household-stuff as a Dish or a Spoon betwixt us both". They did, however, own two books, which the new Mrs Bunyan had inherited from her father. These were Practice of Piety by Lewis Bayly and Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven by Arthur Dent (yes, really – there was a Puritan minister and writer called Arthur Dent who died in 1607. There is no information on whether Douglas Adams named his character after this guy though). The couple had four children. The eldest, Mary, was blind, and the others were called Elizabeth, Thomas and John.
One Sunday he listened to a sermon about the Sabbath and the consequences of breaking it. Later, he was on the village green playing a game involving hitting a ball with a stick, when he heard God speak to him, telling him that he was sinful and going to hell. He struggled for a time with his sinful state and even developed a fear of bell ringing, a hobby he’d once enjoyed. Now he feared if he so much as entered the bell tower the bell would fall on him or the steeple collapse. He joined a nonconformist church as a result of hearing people talking about it during his travels working as a tinker. It was here that he began preaching and wrote his first book.
When the monarchy was restored in 1660, Bunyan was no longer free to preach and practice the nonconformist religion. It was now an offence to attend a religious meeting outside of the parish church with more than five people you weren’t related to. Not that it stopped him. He was preaching one day at a farm when he was arrested and sentenced to three months in prison which was extended to 12 years because he refused to promise to give up preaching outside the established church. During this time he made a little money to send home by making Shoelaces and writing tracts. His first wife had died, and he was now married to a woman called Elizabeth. He was occasionally allowed time out of prison which allowed him to continue preaching and father two children with Elizabeth. While he was in prison, he wrote a book called Grace Abounding and began work on Pilgrim’s Progress.
In 1672 the king issued a declaration of indulgence which suspended laws against nonconformists, and Bunyan was released. He was able to preach again and became a travelling preacher and earning the nickname “Bishop Bunyan”. There was a bit of a scandal though, when he allowed a member of his congregation, a young woman called Agnes Beaumont, to ride behind him on his horse. People, including the girl’s father, believed they were having an affair. Soon after her father died and Agnes was accused of poisoning him, but the coroner’s verdict was natural causes.
The Pilgrim’s Progress has been made into an Opera. The opera was written by Ralph Vaughan Williams and first performed at the Royal Opera House in 1951. It was revived in 2012 by the English National Opera.
Christmas is coming!
A Very Variant Christmas
Last year, Jade and Gloria were embroiled in a bitter conflict to win back their throne and their ancestral home. This year, Queen Jade and Princess Gloria want to host the biggest and best Christmas party ever in their palace. They invite all their friends to come and bring guests. Not even the birth of Jade's heir just before Christmas will stop them.
The guest list includes most of Britain's complement of super-powered crime-fighters, their families and friends. What could possibly go wrong?
Gatecrashers, unexpected arrivals, exploding Christmas crackers and a kidnapping, for starters.
Far away in space, the Constellations, a cosmic peacekeeping force, have suffered a tragic loss. They need to recruit a new member to replace their dead colleague. The two top candidates are both at Jade and Gloria's party. The arrival of the recruitment delegation on Christmas Eve is a surprise for everyone; but their visit means one guest now faces a life-changing decision.
Meanwhile, an alliance of the enemies of various guests at the party has infiltrated the palace; they hide in the dungeon, plotting how best to get rid of the crime-fighters and the royal family once and for all. Problem is, they all have their own agendas and differences of opinion on how to achieve their aims.
Not to mention that this year, the ghosts who walk the corridors of the palace on Christmas Eve will be as surprised by the living as the living are by them.
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