About the Author

Chris Maclean is a Waikanae-based author with a keen interest in the outdoors, the subject of a number of his books. Born in Wellington in 1952, he graduated from Victoria University with a degree in history. A career as a stained-glass artist in the 1970s led, in turn, to a second as a writer and publisher, which has been his primary focus since the late 1980s. The result has been a dozen non-fiction titles, including well-known volumes celebrating the local landscape – Waikanae, Tararua, Kapiti and Wellington – Telling Tales – and several biographies, including John Pascoe and Stag Spooner – Wild Man from the Bush. He has also collaborated with others to produce books on war memorials and stained glass (with Jock Phillips) and Tramping – A New Zealand History (with Shaun Barnett). A Way with Words recalls both careers, then contemplates a third, retirement focused on facilitating conservation in the Kapiti district.