Roy Hattersley follows Wesley’s spiritual journey, tracing his constant, often agonizing attempts to define the nature of virtue as well as the path to sanctity. The story of Wesley’s theological progress is vastly enriched by Hattersley’s revealing portrait of Wesley’s complex personality. A genuine scholar, Wesley published more work than any other author of the eighteenth century. He possessed phenomenal energy, traveling huge distances to preach and proselytize. Wesley practiced, as Hattersley writes, “every form of personal discipline (diet, exercise, carefully planned day) except emotional restraint.” This candid account of Wesley’s relationship with women—falling desperately in love three times in his life, each time failing to make his intentions clear, and eventually ending up in a disastrous marriage—brilliantly brings to life Wesley’s human side, largely ignored in previous reverential biographies.

A wonderful synthesis of personal, social, and spiritual biography, The Life of John Wesley sheds new light on the variety of things that motivated one of the most interesting and significant figures in religious history.

“Roy Hattersley has written a full and fair biography of a man it is possible to admire but harder to like. He is particularly clearsighted about the nature of Wesley’s theology, which was essentially conservative, and always pragmatic.” —New Statesman

“He [Roy Hattersley] is finely understanding of Wesley’s dogged spiritual journey.”

—Times Literary Supplement

“Hattersley’s achievement is the admirable clarity with which he guides us through his theological labyrinth. With humour and sympathy he explores Wesley’s peculiar psychology within social and religious contexts, so that we can see how his interior quest shaped the greatest popular religious revival of his time.” —Sunday Times

ROY HATTERSLEY, a politician-turned-writer, is the author of more than fifteen books, including Who Goes Home, Fifth Year On, and Blood and Fire. A former television critic for the Daily Express, he has written the column “Endpiece” for The Guardian for eighteen years.