But the result is a book featuring men and women whose stories encompass achievement, courage, endurance and survival.

Amazing People of the Border is being released on Saturday with an author signing at Dymocks in the Myer Centrepoint­ arcade in Albury from 11am.

Jones, who retired a year ago, compiled 40 of his interviews and stories published in this newspaper between 1985 and 2011.

"I was very lucky to be given a chance to meet so many interesting people with remarkable lives," he said.

"There was Martin Balsarini, a Chiltern lighthorseman who was in the world's last cavalry charge at Beersheba in 1917.

"I met Maude Altona when she was 103, exactly 100 years after she left Albury and sailed with her family to the New Australia colony in Paraguay.

"Other people spent all their lives on the Border and helped enrich our lives through their music, artistic skills, public service or charitable works.

"Mac Greene and Alice Haydon gave vivid accounts of how they survived through the Great Depression.

"Two sisters told me how they were part of the family of 19 children raised at Rand by Olivia and Alex Smyth.

"Others like the sculptor Hans Knorr, Wodonga's Ron Clarkson and North Albury's Aphrodity Cretan talked about remarkable wartime experiences.”

"I must admit I've included a lot of people I personally liked very much, such as Theo Charles­Jones and historians Gerry Curtis and Cliff Chamberlain,” Jones said.

"Most of my subjects have passed away and are almost forgotten, so I intended the book to be a permanent memorial to them.”

Jones said he expected that some people would be surprised he had included "Wayno" Markham, the harmless "man with the bags" who lived on Albury’s streets and died in 2009.

"His tragic story of a well-­educated man living on the streets didn't really come out until he died, but hundreds mourned him on Facebook," he said.

"That was truly amazing."