John Horner grew up in the sub-arctic community of Churchill, Manitoba in the 1950s and the 1960s. Once he was attending university on the "outside," he would return to Churchill for summer employment and to spend holidays with his family. He last saw the community with his then new bride at Christmastime 1969, and his family left when the military base closed in 1973.

With his first book, John seeks to show the reader what life was like in Churchill in the mid-1950s and early 1960s, and how the community had changed by his last visit. He also desires to share with readers the historical importance of Churchill since 1700, how global warming has changed the North over the last fifty years, and the importance of preserving wildlife and wild spaces.

Having always been a reader of history and biographies, living in Churchill, and later the Yukon, gave John the opportunity to experience the presence and making of history. The manuscript was inspired by his experiences working as a teacher for thirty-one years in rural Manitoba and the Yukon, spending the last twenty-five teaching British History, Canadian History, American History, and the History of Western Civilization. John's hobbies are reading, writing, cooking, woodworking, travelling, and volunteering as a guide at the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada.

John lives in Winnipeg with his wife of over fifty years, Valerie, surrounded by their loving children, in-laws, grand-children, and grand-pets.