Jon Tait was an agency sportswriter for the tabloids for over a decade and was the press officer at Gretna Football Club. He has also written a best-selling walks book on Northumberland. If he was going to get stuck up a mountain, he'd like Julia Bradbury to be there too.

Born in Northumberland, he now lives in Carlisle with his family and enjoys belting out a bit of early 1990s techno when he gets the chance, but also listens to the likes of The Doors, The Who, Seasick Steve, Happy Mondays, Beck, Grinderman and Hole.

He likes Levi jeans, Barbour coats, Swiss Army knifes and Zippo lighters and his writing influences include the likes of Hunter S. Thompson, Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, Harry Pearson, Roberto Saviano, Poe Ballantine, Jimmy Breslin and Damon Runyon.