The Villain: A Portrait of Don Whillans

A magnificent book, this biography of Britain's most controversial post-war climber. Jim Perrin's rendering of Whillans' life is truly "symphonic": as it unfolds there is a feeling of progression, of widening vistas, of deepening insight into the subterranean drives of this wilful personality. All of this emerges organically from a number of key themes - Whillans' working-class background, the fraught relationship with his key climbing partners (Joe Brown and Chris Bonnington) and his wife Audrey, the fractious dynamics in the English climbing community, the enduring attraction of Cheshire gritstone, Chamonix granite and the snow and ice of the great Himalayan peaks. These themes are refracted in myriads of amazing, often wildly funny stories and anecdotes. As a result of Perrin's great and humane skill in weaving these various strands together, the story assumes a significance that goes beyond this particular constellation of character, space and time. After having read this book, Don Whillans' personality stands for something bigger, something more fundamental and iconic. At a certain point, Perrin very aptly likens Whillans to Achilles - enormously gifted and driven but unable to quell his egotism and agression, unable to let his gift flower into a more balanced, endearing persona. There are lessons here for all of humanity. On the other hand, and despite the deeper significance that speaks from Perrin's narrative, this is a climbers' book in such a fundamental and exemplary way. With immense sympathy and wisdom it speaks particularly to those who have experienced what it means to have space below your feet, to trust your life to your own and your partner's skill and the mood of the mountain, to precariously feel your way through vast wilderness spaces. I enjoyed this book immensely. Don Whillans is here to stay.

most biographies of climbers have a limited audience in mind - other climbers. while that is clearly the intended readership for Mr. Perrin's opus, it is so well written, and the psychology and sociology of the subject is of broad enough interest, that this book deserves to be picked up by more general-interest readers who are "into" biography. it is, by turns, poignant, frustrating, impressive, heart-warming, side-splittingly funny, and sad - thus optimally reflecting the character of Mr. Whillans. a delight - recommend it to a non-climber! cheers.

This is a quite wonderful book. Jim Perrin is a rare man: a mountaineer from working class roots who's also a very gifted writer, in my opinion the finest of all the mountaineering writers of late. He's an averagely competent climber - no extreme gymnast or Everest-conquering hero - but has been in the "scene" for decades and knew Whillans personally, who, besides being a fabulously gifted climber armed with a devastating wit, was also famously bellicose. (Perrin's first encounter with Whillans was when Whillans invited him to 'step outslde' after he'd bumped him in a Welsh pub; people who didn't know Whillans often got into trouble with because he was so small - only five foot three. "But it's raining!" exclaimed Perrin, to his immediate embarrassment. "Aye, yer wet enough already", retorted Whillans, and walked away chuckling. They later became friends.) The book is sublimely assembled and the acute poignancy of his subject - the "hardest man" in British climbing, who while broadly loved, revered and admired by the climbing community at large, was shunned in his later years by a sizeable minority of his peers - actually reduced me to tears in several places: each time, surprised by the sudden lump in my throat, I had to stop reading for a few minutes. This was a clearly a terribly difficult project (it took nearly twenty years to complete); in his preface he says the book was really written by the entire British climbing community, such was the quality and quantity of the material provided from every quarter. As I read on, quite unable to put the book down, I found myself increasingly admiring of Perrin's writing on what is a very challenging and unstraightforward subject - a respected friend, brilliant in many ways yet full of flaws and complexity, revered by the climbing community yet brim-full of contradictions. Some of the most moving parts of the book for me were the brilliant glimpses Perrin provided into the undoubted soft, sensitive, yet almost totally hidden core of this toughest and bravest of men: when he relished bouncing a balloon with a friend's small child (he thought no-one was watching); the great care he gave to those in difficulty in perilous and serious mountain situations (when he always came into his own; many described Whillans as the very finest mountaineer ever to share a tight corner with); the desperate hurt and betrayal he felt - and never got over - when Joe Brown, his old-time climbing partner and (some may say) nemesis, was invited to Kanchenjunga in 1953 but Whillans was overlooked; the times when as a small child he was a famous 'scrapper' but would always do the decent thing and own up when a friend was unjustly punished for one of Whillans' misdemeanours. For me, Whillans - in most, but not all, of his actions and behavior; the only exceptions occurred when he was drunk and a different, more violent and angry persona sometimes emerged - epitomizes the very definition of 'integrity": when one's words, actions

Penned by a mountaineer with a balanced perspective on the 'sport' and its politics, Jim Perrin's eloquent expose of Don Whillans chronicles Whillan's predecessors, his contemporaries and subsequent generation of climbers. The text is sprinkled with colloquialisms that delight. And, rich with colorful antedotes recorded by Whillan's friends and cohorts, makes this book greater than the sum of its parts. A wonderful, and brillantly crafted story of one of Britain's greatest climbers, his ropemates, the mountaineering events that forged his preeminence, sustained the popularity of his lectures, and the pubbing that rounded his stature and shortened his life.