Ian Dougherty

Ian Dougherty is a Dunedin-based journalist and historian. He was born and raised in the southern city and has an M.A. in history from Otago University. After studying journalism at Canterbury University, he worked in radio and television news and current affairs. He has also written for various newspapers and magazines and taught journalism at polytechnics in Dunedin and Invercargill. For several years he worked as an historian with the Ministry for Culture and Heritage in Wellington.

Ian is the author of a critically acclaimed biography of legendary South Island gold prospector William 'Arawata Bill' O'Leary. He has also written an eclectic bunch of other books, from histories of citizens advice bureaux, amateur radio and several on polytechnics and institutes of technology, to books on contemporary Otago and the champion Southern Sting netball team. He is the co-author of the book on mental illness, and the author of Books and Boots: the Story of New Zealand Publisher, Writer and Long Distance Walker, Alfred Hamish Reed (Otago University Press, 2005).

When he is not writing, he likes to grab his tramping boots and camera and head off into the South Island back country.