John Wilson was a keen climber both here and in America and Peru from the 1950s to 1970s. He lives surrounded by mountains in Arthurs Pass, having retired from a career writing - he was the founding editor of the magazine of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust, and prior to that a leader writer for the Christchurch Press. His book, New Zealand Mountaineering captures the history of mountaineering in New Zealand from the 1800s to the present and it includes a raft of photographs. John Wilson has a PhD in history from Harvard University.