Gordon Wilson

Hi, I am a 'pyreneiste' which means simply that I love the Pyrenees mountains. The term was coined in the 19th century to view the Pyreness in a holistic way, not just as mountains to conquer. I have traversed the range twice from Atlantic to Mediterranean (800+km). Approaching 80, I now spend up to five weeks a year with my partner (since 1976!) Angharad at a small settlement at the head of our favourite valley. Every year, family - we now have six grandchildren - and friends visit us there.

Over almost 30 years I have grown to know the Pyrenees as a political frontier, and have developed a deep appreciation of the people who live there. I have published previously 'The Pyrenees: Trekking the Mountains of Hope and Freedom'. My latest book, co-authored with fellow pyreneiste, Steve Cracknell, is 'Mountain People: Tales from the Pyrenees'.

I retired as an academic with the UK Open University at the end of 2011, but I still retain the title of Emeritus Professor, and I continue to pursue my research in various ways without it taking over my life. As an academic, I coauthored three books related to my specialist subject - environment and development - and wrote numerous invited chapters and journal articles.

My father introduced me to mountains in 1959 when I was 13. We spent a half-term school holiday walking from Youth Hostel to Youth Hostel in the English Lake District - a tradition that Angharad and I re-discovered when we trekked from mountain refuge to mountain refuge along the Pyrenees this century. I am profoundly grateful for his legacy. He died early 2022, aged 97.

When not in the Pyrenees, I keep myself fit on a daily basis by pounding the Pennine moors near where I live in West Yorkshire, and which I also have grown to love. I am also a regular visitor to the Pembrokeshire Coast and the Lake District and, when circumstance permits, I will take a hike in any part of the UK. I deeply believe in, 'Use it or lose it.'