The foremost political figure from the years of responsible government in Newfoundland, Robert Bond led a spectacularly successful but often tortured life. Cultured and well-to-do, he tried to play the game of politics like a gentleman, and over a period of 30 years never suffered a defeat at the polls. During his remarkable career, he built a reputation as a statesman, negotiating two trade agreements with the United States and reclaiming Newfoundland's rights to the French Shore. In the dark days following the bank crash of 1894, he personally intervened to save the country from bankruptcy. As prime minister he led a scrupulous and scandal-free administration. In private life, he was a recluse. He idolized his mother, never married, agonized over his health, and suffered a tortured relationship with his mentor William Whiteway. His place of solace was Whitbourne, where he built a magnificent country estate, complete with an elegant manor house, beautiful gardens and a working farm. This carefully researched and engaging biography delves into Bond's life and times, following him from his school days in St. John's and England to his rapid rise in politics in the 1880s and '90s and his time as prime minister in the first decade of the twentieth century. Along the way it reveals Bond's relationship with the unforgettable characters in this formative and turbulent time in Newfoundland politics.

Ted Rowe grew up in Heart’s Content, NL. He is a graduate of Memorial University, Dalhousie University, and the University of Western Ontario. After teaching at Memorial in the 1970s, he had a thirty-year career in real estate and has been active in a number of community organizations. Along the way he and his wife Maureen raised a family of five sons. He is the author of Connecting the Continents: Heart’s Content and the Atlantic Cable and Heroes & Rogues, a community history of Heart’s Content. His biography Robert Bond: The Greatest Newfoundlander was shortlisted for the Shaughnessy Cohen award for political writing by the Writer’s Trust of Canada in 2018. In his spare time he travels, plays music, and enjoys good food and wine.

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