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The Villain: A Life of Don Whillans
A fascinating, thought-provoking biography of a climbing legend.Don Whillans has been an icon for generations of climbers. His first ascent of Annapurna's South Face with Dougal Haston in 1970, remains one of the most impressive climbs ever made - a standard to which all contemporary Himalayan climbers aspire. But Perrin examines the tough reality behind Whillans' formidable achievements - the character of the man himself. Despite his skill and daring, Whillans was a savage-tongued, hell-raising scrapper - turned down for a Queen's Birthday honour, because of a violent fracas with the police. Coming out of a world miles away from the environment of the upper class climbers who dominated the sport, Whillans' forceful, uncompromising personality gave him superstar status - the flawed heroism of a Best, a McEnroe, or an Ali.
354 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
About the author
Jim Perrin
38 books10 followers Jim Perrin is an English rock climber and travel writer.
Perrin has lived in Wales since the age of 17. Before turning to writing, he worked in Cwm Pennant as a shepherd. As a writer, he has made regular contributions to a number of newspapers and climbing magazines. As a climber, he has developed new routes, as well as making solo ascents of a number of established routes.
He has won the Boardman Tasker prize twice, first for Menlove (1985), his biography of John Menlove Edwards, and again as a joint winner (alongside Andy Cave's Learning to Breathe) for The Villain (2005), a biography of Don Whillans.
For many years he has contributed mountaineering obituaries for The Guardian (see, for example, the recent contribution on Brede Arkless). He has six children by six different partners, one, Will, also a talented climber, took his own life aged 24.
Perrin has lived in Wales since the age of 17. Before turning to writing, he worked in Cwm Pennant as a shepherd. As a writer, he has made regular contributions to a number of newspapers and climbing magazines. As a climber, he has developed new routes, as well as making solo ascents of a number of established routes.
He has won the Boardman Tasker prize twice, first for Menlove (1985), his biography of John Menlove Edwards, and again as a joint winner (alongside Andy Cave's Learning to Breathe) for The Villain (2005), a biography of Don Whillans.
For many years he has contributed mountaineering obituaries for The Guardian (see, for example, the recent contribution on Brede Arkless). He has six children by six different partners, one, Will, also a talented climber, took his own life aged 24.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 20, 2026
I actually don’t know anything about climbing as I have never set foot beyond the padded, colour coded confines of a climbing gym, so in the technically detailed descriptions of rock climbs and mountain expeditions that inevitably made up an enormous portion of this book, I didn’t know wtf Perrin was on about. They were clearly very well written nonetheless and have encouraged me to finally get myself to the peaks.
Despite this obstacle (entirely of my own making), I found Whillans’ ascent from being a Salfordian plumber to one of the worlds finest mountaineers very interesting and compelling. The climbers that came up with him from similar backgrounds and areas in the rock and ice club seem to have been a collective anomaly in the then (and probably now) largely privileged spheres of pro climbing.
Perrin paints such a rich tapestry of the broad climbing community in postwar Britain, often most engagingly in the tangential footnotes and descriptions of peripheral characters and orbiters in Whillans’ idiosyncratic climbing circles. The writers own embedded place in this world and his commitment to an honest portrayal of it, both critical and loving, is abundantly clear.
The main subject being Don Whillans makes this honesty crucial, because he is such a Bastard. His flawed and self destructive nature is what got me interested in his character in the first place (along with him just looking like a jokeman) but sometimes I did wonder why I cared enough to spend so much time with such a fundamentally unlikeable man.
I would have liked to have some questions on his foulness answered in full, like ‘why was he so consistently remorseless in how he mistreated and cheated on his long suffering wife’ and ‘why is the only woman he ever seems to have thought of with anything close to admiration Margaret Thatcher’, but I’m sure that no one could really get to the bottom of these questions.
I often think of the fact that for two of my three years of university I was a paying member of the mountaineering society, and yet I never made it to the mountains because I was too busy drinking beer. Reading about the life of Don Whillans has obliterated this false dichotomy. A poor excuse, he was far better at both climbing and drinking than I will ever be.
P.s. fucking hell a lot of people used to die climbing and mountaineering , seems like it was just a given that on the big expeditions there would be a smaller team returning than setting off. Very sad.
Despite this obstacle (entirely of my own making), I found Whillans’ ascent from being a Salfordian plumber to one of the worlds finest mountaineers very interesting and compelling. The climbers that came up with him from similar backgrounds and areas in the rock and ice club seem to have been a collective anomaly in the then (and probably now) largely privileged spheres of pro climbing.
Perrin paints such a rich tapestry of the broad climbing community in postwar Britain, often most engagingly in the tangential footnotes and descriptions of peripheral characters and orbiters in Whillans’ idiosyncratic climbing circles. The writers own embedded place in this world and his commitment to an honest portrayal of it, both critical and loving, is abundantly clear.
The main subject being Don Whillans makes this honesty crucial, because he is such a Bastard. His flawed and self destructive nature is what got me interested in his character in the first place (along with him just looking like a jokeman) but sometimes I did wonder why I cared enough to spend so much time with such a fundamentally unlikeable man.
I would have liked to have some questions on his foulness answered in full, like ‘why was he so consistently remorseless in how he mistreated and cheated on his long suffering wife’ and ‘why is the only woman he ever seems to have thought of with anything close to admiration Margaret Thatcher’, but I’m sure that no one could really get to the bottom of these questions.
I often think of the fact that for two of my three years of university I was a paying member of the mountaineering society, and yet I never made it to the mountains because I was too busy drinking beer. Reading about the life of Don Whillans has obliterated this false dichotomy. A poor excuse, he was far better at both climbing and drinking than I will ever be.
P.s. fucking hell a lot of people used to die climbing and mountaineering , seems like it was just a given that on the big expeditions there would be a smaller team returning than setting off. Very sad.
February 1, 2011
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.
October 14, 2009
Whillans was a violent, heavy-drinking, working-class self caricature from the north of England. He was also a virtuoso rock climber and at the peak of his powers (pun intended), a formidable mountaineer. Jim Perrin is superb on the class division in British climbing in the decades after WW2. He has spoken to all the (surviving) major players in this fascinating world. This is superbly written biography, only made the more compelling by Perrin's ambivalence towards the character at the story's centre.
January 4, 2013
I enjoy a little climbing...if it wasn't for all the bloomin footnotes this would be a five star book
July 3, 2018
Another Perrin masterpiece; balanced but objective. Whillans was not always a nice fellow.
February 22, 2021
This was my first book on mountaineering. It got my attention. This biography of Don Whillans was exhaustively researched, and as others have said, a little bit on the technical side. However it was a great insight into the life of a climbing celebrity, however human. Whillans was a virtuoso climber, brave and strong, who from humble beginnings, had an incredible life.
Sadly this book seemed somewhat vindictive. There were many heroes in Perrin's take on the climbing fraternity, but only one villain. I thought he revealed his own revulsion at Whillans, a view that wasn't universally held. Ending with Bonnington's ascerbic "He died at the right time." Perrin must ask himself again, if he really did want to avoid a hatchet job.
Sadly this book seemed somewhat vindictive. There were many heroes in Perrin's take on the climbing fraternity, but only one villain. I thought he revealed his own revulsion at Whillans, a view that wasn't universally held. Ending with Bonnington's ascerbic "He died at the right time." Perrin must ask himself again, if he really did want to avoid a hatchet job.
May 1, 2022
Goodness this was hard work!
Highly technical and with full descriptions of many individual climbs, this is probably one more for the keen climbers.
Don was an interesting character but finding the tidbits of personality buried in amongst the minutiae of the climbs was difficult.
Highly technical and with full descriptions of many individual climbs, this is probably one more for the keen climbers.
Don was an interesting character but finding the tidbits of personality buried in amongst the minutiae of the climbs was difficult.
April 9, 2016
An intricately researched and well told biography of a man who's controversial character captivates just as much as his achievements on the toughest climbs of his time using far inferior ropes, shoes, and protection than what is available today. From the geological playground of skye and the scrappy streets of lnkwell and Derbyshire in 1930s where Don Whillans grew up to his adventures in the Alps and Himalaya we are immersed in the interactions and peculiarities that so characterized him. Especially notable was his tendency to never back down from a brawl with anyone who crossed him (particularly if they were bigger than he was), and typically he came out on top. An example of his entertainingly honest and often fractious personality from his first climb in the himalaya.... [they were delayed by a slow Czechoslovakian party in front. Don - in boots with a sack on his back - bridged past them and onto the stance. The wide-eyed Czech leader said to Don, "sir, you are tremendous, the most fantastic climber in the world." "No, mate," responded Don, "I'm not the best climber in the world - you're the bloody worst."] Not to be overlooked, this book also contains a great deal of climbing history and insight.
July 25, 2013
Biography of one of the UK's most gifted climbers, a difficult guy by all accounts. The author claims the book will be readable for non-climbers but I kinda doubt this, far too much technical stuff about routes etc, I skipped large chunks to be honest. Still the non-tech climbing bits were good.
January 2, 2015
The 'Warts and all' biography of one of the UKs most audacious climbers. Personally I would fall more towards liking the Joe Brown side of the partnership.
February 24, 2015
A difficult at times vulgar read. A good look behind the Don of film..much darker man than I once thought. Nonetheless thoroughly enjoyed it.
May 2, 2017
A well researched and great antidote to the fictions that surround Whillans.
Whillans was a larger than life character, the bad-boy of the British climbing scene who developed a reputation as the tough talking, brash outsider who could have out climbed anyone at a moments notice.
The book portrayed a vaguely bitter obnoxious character who got trapped in the limelight and had a hard drinking reputation to live up.
Every page heaps miss opportunity upon squandered talent. Someone whose glory days passed to fast.
It is the accounting of a human being, highly skilled and highly flawed.
Whillans was a larger than life character, the bad-boy of the British climbing scene who developed a reputation as the tough talking, brash outsider who could have out climbed anyone at a moments notice.
The book portrayed a vaguely bitter obnoxious character who got trapped in the limelight and had a hard drinking reputation to live up.
Every page heaps miss opportunity upon squandered talent. Someone whose glory days passed to fast.
It is the accounting of a human being, highly skilled and highly flawed.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews