Author: Young John

At 17, after a childhood spent between West Africa, the Yorkshire moors, and an English boarding schools, John set off alone for New Zealand to be a forester and then to university, paying his way with an assortment of jobs from boatbuilder to wharfie to postman. He eventually studied at Oxford and settled on an academic career in history and environmental studies at the University of Adelaide. Later, he and his wife Ruth moved to Tasmania to establish the boatbuilding school that has now become the Wooden Boat Centre in Franklin. He is the author of several books and numerous articles on New Zealand, Australian, Pacific and maritime history, environmental issues, and the educational value of wooden boatbuilding.