Susan Harding

Susan Harding (1943-2006) was the author of the children’s books Beginning with John’s Gospel, Tell Me About God, and Grow in Wisdom, published by the Trust.

Susan was born in London and educated there and in Aberystwyth. She and John Harding were married at Grove Chapel, Camberwell, in 1967.

Susan Harding was always an able student and writer. Her doctoral thesis on the growth of Protestantism in Norfolk would surely have appeared in print if she had not had other priorities, particularly aiding her husband, and their five sons.

Moving to Scotland and the Free Church of Scotland in 1975, the Hardings served the Shettleston congregation in the East End of Glasgow until 2002 and were much loved by the people in that struggling cause. The books Mrs Harding wrote in the 1980s found their way into French, German, Dutch and Tamil.

The family moved to Kent in later years and this brought Susan new opportunities, but it was with the onset of cancer that her life and witness came to its brightest fruition. ‘I am in Beulah land,’ she said, lying immobile on a bed of suffering. Her radiant faith lifted the burdens of many and, in the words of her eldest son, ‘energised them with joy’.