Alexa Johnston isa freelance writer and art curator. Her first book, a definitive biography of the iconic New Zealand mountaineer, Sir Edmund Hillary: An Extraordinary Life, was a finalist in the Montana Book Awards. An enthusiastic and accomplished baker from a young age, Alexa has published three cookbooks celebrating New Zealand's culinary history: Ladies, a Plate (2008), A Second Helping (2009) and What's For Pudding? (2011); as well as a beautiful hardback collectors' edition of her baking recipes, Ladies, a Plate: The Collection (2012).She is a columnist in Taste magazine and will publish a fourth cookbook in late 2013.