Charles Colson: A Life Redeemed

Watergate was a cataclysm - the reverberations rocked the American establishment to its core. Nixon fell from power and along with him a number of his cronies and partners in crime. Charles Colson was one of the most notorious. Condemned and sent to prison Colson experienced a Damascus Road conversion and became a committed evangelical Christian. He wrote a book called Born Again which sold over 100,000 in the British market and topped the bestselling charts in the USA for weeks. Colson appointed Jonathan Aitken to be his official biographer. The similarities in their respective careers will be obvious to the reader and the combination of author and subject is thus exceptionally interesting. Jonathan Aitken traces the story of Colson's life and tries to understand what made Colson the power crazed man he was - a man who finally could not tell the difference between right and wrong. Since his fall from power and his conversion, Colson has devoted himself energetically to charitable work particularly to prison reform and the after care of ex-prisoners. His charity Prison Fellowship has branches in England Scotland and Northern Ireland. What, asks Aitken, is his true motivation? How can any man or woman expiate for the sins of the past? In his researches, Aitken has interviewed Colson extensively but has also uncovered a lot of new material. This book will be of compelling interest to students of Watergate, US politics and anyone interested in social and political reform.