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The Villain a Portrait of Don Whillans

For those of you who may be interested in climbing history, especially that of the famous gritstone crags of England then The Villain a Portrait of Don Whillans by Jim Perrin is the book for you. The book portrays the life of Don Whillans, a climber who pioneered many of the leading edge climbs of his day. Whillans was also a mountaineer who includes the first ascent of Annapurna’s South Face on his resume.

The book doesn’t mince words. Perrin does a great job telling it how it was. Whillans was both a hero and a villain. Upon reading, you will find that in the end who he was truly a villain to. Some accounts are inspirational, others are hilarious, and yet others are truly sad.

One of the cool things about this book is the footnotes. Perrin elaborates on topics in the footnotes where it would otherwise make the regular dialog to verbose. I found them as much fun to read as the regular text.

I found the first part of the book the best, when Whillans was kicking trash on the gritstone. Even so, the whole book was a solid read.