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The name of Douglas Bond is being connected with some of the finest works of historical fiction. He is an author of novels such as Duncan’s War, King’s Arrow, Rebel’s Keep, and many more. Douglas is a ruling elder within the Presbyterian Church in USA, and besides that, he is a teacher of English language and history at a Christian high school. His wide education includes a Masters degree from St Martin’s University, and a certificate in theology from Moore Theological College. The passions of this man are history and religion.
Bond sees a great potential in these areas of research, and he understands that they are rich with topics, motifs and symbols that a writer can use in his writing. Since Douglas considers writing to be his passion, he tends to work on it in any way, and to support young writers. Because of this he was rewarded with 2005 Teacher Award, for his efforts in teaching creative writing. Douglas is also an author of several books on hymnody and hymn writers, which makes him an expert on the topic, and he has worked as a consultant for the series on the Christian hymns, that CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) has organized. Besides that, he is also included in the advisory board of Montreal’s Glorious Films. As a church history expert, Bond is organizing interesting tours all over the Europe, and he is also working as a church history consultant on documentary films. These tours have a goal to connect modern people with the ancient Christians. They include locations all over the Britain, and also some other European locations like Paris, Rome and Geneva.
Bond’s beginning of literal journey is an interesting one. His children motivated him to start writing. They always preferred that he tells them different stories than to read them. He wrote some stories and they wanted more. Soon, this turned into a writing spree, and Bond was waking during the night to write down some ideas and concepts. This way the Hammer of the Huguenots and The Battle of Seattle were born. As the author himself said, his passion for writing didn’t exist during his childhood and school years. It was the final year of graduate school when he began to realize that writing was his way of expressing emotions and knowledge. The writers that have influenced Bond are all today’s classics, including Shakespeare, Milton and Chaucer. However, he emphasizes that the biggest influence on him were probably the works of Charles Spurgeon. Spurgeon was a Baptist preacher, that often wrote on topics of sermons, religion, but he also wrote poetry. Besides Spurgeon, Bond says that C.S. Lewis is also an important figure in his writing career.
In general, Douglas Bond tends to build his characters and stories on historical and religious basis. He thinks that history is a very important aspect of human life, because there is a variety of mistakes and successes that our grandparents did, and we can learn from them. On the other hand, both history and religion are a vast pool of inspirations and incredible stories. This is something that he learned from his children. In a creative way, Bond is discussing serious topics. He writes about differences of Christianity and other religions. His books are telling us that God gives us life, but we still have a responsibility to make the whole work in the right way. His characters are speeded all over the centuries, and we can read stories that concern ancient, Roman times, medieval times, and modern times. With this procedure, he wants to show us how some topics and some problems are timeless, and universal. Today, a modern man or woman is having the same problems as once their ancestors had. These problems include division between two worlds. Bond’s characters are often divided between paganism and Christianity, wrongdoing and justice, and lie and truth.
One of the Bond’s early books, Duncan’s War fully describes the universal topics that occupies this author. In the novel, young Duncan M’Kethe lives with his family in the 17th century Scotland. The Scots need to accept the King of England as their ruler, which positions the plot on the edge of a war. The main problem is in Duncan. He is one of Bond’s characters that is divided between his will to get rid of the English oppression, and the teachings of his father who told him that a true Christian must love his enemies. Through the novel, young Duncan will have to think and decide can he turn the other cheek. This eternal combat takes place within a man – is it possible to forgive the ones that bring you pain? Bond’s next book in The Crown and Covenant series is named King’s Arrow. This novel continues the story of a M’Keath family during the 17th century troubles in Scotland. Archer and shepherd, Angus M’Kethe is dealing with a mysterious murder that can destroy his clan. The whole book is filled with battle scenes that will speed up the tempo of reading. Through The Crown and Covenant series, Douglas Bond wanted to present a universal position of a Christian in this world. All the questions that he asked with his novels are there to be answered by readers, and then implemented in their own life . Some other works of Douglas Bond are biographical novels, where he presents the lives and teachings of important people through the history. These books include The Thunder: A Novel on John Knox and The Betrayal: A Novel on John Calvin. The novels are set around real historic figures that Bond considers important and unique. Through them, he told us a story of faith and endurance, which is essential so one could pass through dark times.
With history as a connecting line between all these novels, Douglas Bond wanted to give us a thought on suffering, on confusion, on hard times, and at last, a thought on salvation and freedom. In his novels, there are always two sides that are almost archetypical, and the hero needs to choose. Bond showed us how our problems are universal, and how there is always a way to deal with them, but only with the grace of God.
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