John and Monica Chapman
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John and Monica Chapman are Australia's best known
bushwalking/backpacking authors and they have been writing and
producing walking guides for over 40 years.
For some
areas, their books are considered to be the bible and are essential for
anyone contemplating on planning a trip to the
Australian Alps Walking Track or to undertake walks in the World
Heritage Area in
Tasmania such as the Western Arthurs, Federation Peak, Southern Ranges
and Mt Anne circuit.
Their books can be ordered direct from the Published
Books page or from many bookshops, map shops and outdoor
retailers in
Australia.
John is well known in photography and judges International Exhibitions.
He has been awarded
a number of international honours including Grand Master of
the
Photographic Society of America, Grand Master of the Australian Photographic Society and EFIAP/p from the International
Federation of Photographic Art in Europe.
A long list of publications that John has written or contributed to are
shown on the Published Works
page
Monica
has been president of the Maroondah Bushwalking Club, president of
Bushwalking Victoria (the peak body that represents clubs and
individual bushwalkers in Victoria) and is currently
Co-convenor
of Bush Search and Rescue (she is sharing the chairpersons role). This
is her second time as Convener.of Bush Search and Rescue.
John and Monica have used their photography and computer
skills to create a wide range of illustrated talks for clubs and
community groups.
We now have a Facebook
page where we will post some of our news and
adventures.
Email comments about our books from some of our customers
I have found your books very
useful for the many trips to tassie over the years. Thanks for your
efforts in
producing high quality information.
-------------------------
Just
a quick email from a Melbournian to say thanks
for your TAS guidebooks which are invaluable. They've come in very
handy. Your
passion for the area is clearly evident.
-----------------------
Back in
the mid 90’s, my brother and I used your Western Arthur track notes to
have an
amazing 16 days out on those ranges.
We were
hooked on the place, cancelled our return tickets to our home in
brisbane –
also cancelled our jobs, I cancelled a climbing trip to arapilies (can
you
believe it!) and did all the walks in the book over the next 3 months.
I have
wanted to write to you for years to thank-you for your influence way
back in
the mid 90’s.
Your
guide was written to be inviting and leading onto an adventure
…..unlike others
who like to give away all the mystery and write like they are an expert
and
there is nothing left to find on a walk (not saying you aren’t an
expert), your
writing style with guides is to encourage with just enough info and
leave the
rest to the walker.
---------------------
Much
to my delight, the guidebooks you sent arrived yesterday. I must
tell you that I am extremely impressed. When you said they came out
well, you
were not kidding. They are absolutely stunning. The photography, the
maps and
charts, the glossy paper, text, sidebars...all are excellent. The
descriptions
are comprehensive and easy to read and follow. My opinion of your
previous
books was very high but I believe you have now outdone yourself. I
believe
these books are superior to guidebooks published here in the States,
and I have
seen many. You are clearly at the top of your game and I congratulate
both of
you.
--------------------
Appreciate acknowledgement and your taking time to
reply. Certainly a fine result after all your hard
work. Your
guides have been a great help to bushwalkers in the last 20-30 years.
--------------------
Thanks for continuing to produce great guide books and
encouraging Australians and Internationals to enjoy our wonderful bush
tracks,
especially our tassie tracks.
------------------
I
just
wanted to compliment you on the excellent standard of the
book.
Especially great to see some of those fine pictures in colour for the
first
time – the book is worth buying for the pictures alone.
------------------------
Lots Wife (p167) looks
even better than it did on the cover of the 1st
ed 1978 ;-
thank
you so much for the copy of your South West Tasmania
book. It really is a very impressive piece of work, full of information
that I
don't recall seeing previously, and beautifully produced. I think
you've made
very good use of the colour printing - the photos really give me a
sense of how
good it would be to be there, and the colour maps are so much more
readable
than B&W.
----------------------
I
recieved the copy on Monday. I've only had a
browse so far but it looks
great,
& has already tempted me to plan the
next trip. Certainly better than
anything
else I can find on the market by far.
---------------------
I
got a lot out of your book on the Larapinta trail, I walked it solo but
met a fantastic group of trail buddies that I would often share camp
with, we would take turns at reading out loud from your book to preview
the next day's walk.
--------------------
We
have used your books on walks such as Great South West
Walk and Larapinta. For the Larapinta we walked from Redbank Gorge to
Alice and
found the notes in the guide book practically showed the way. So easy
to
follow. We bought the Parks map set as well but it was fairly pointless
as a
guide walking in that direction. After we reached Ormiston we no longer
referred to Parks maps and just used the guide book.
--------------
Just
the
other day, meant to drop you some feedback on the copy you sent out to
me of
Bushwalking in Australia.
I
only
had a copy of one of the old Lonely Planet editions, and was knocked
out by the
*vast* improvements evidenced between the
‘self-published’ vs. the Lonely Planet version.
In
regards the ‘new’ formatting, layout, colours (!) etc , realise now
that the
format was in line with the all your new editions – but the contrast I
saw at
the time to the earlier L.P. edition then was just tremendous.
----------------
I would just like to say that the format and presentation is 2nd to
none and
without doubt THE best book on Tassie walks I have seen which is
plenty. The
maps are so easy to read and all the information you need is there so
well
done.
----------------<
Thank
you for the good packaging, it spent an
afternoon in the rain and the book survived well. Excellent
book also!
Snail Mail Address
John Chapman, PO Box 5042, Laburnum, 3130, Australia
Photographs and text are copyright ©2022-2023 John Chapman.
Last updated : January 24th 2023