Some classic lines. Great stuff. I grew up in a small town nearby and was introduced to him as a very young boy (back in the early 70s). Co-incidentally I apparently met Eric Morecombe on the same day but of course don't remember any of it.

Any chance of further column reproductions? weekly ones?!!?

In my opinion, this is one of the best pieces that I have ever read on FishingMagic.

Thank you Ron, Graham and the Angling Times for making this possible.

I for one would love to see a regular (monthly?) continuing article from the Walker archives.

Judging from my emailbox Blam, there seems to be a growing interest in the life and times of Britains greatest angler and writer.

Maybe I should speak to Angling Times about this. Maybe we could get Walker's Pitch II printed at some time.

Eric Morecambe was also a very keen angler. He fished a lot with Frankie Vaughan.

I concur wholeheartedly with peter on this - without doubt one of the most pleasing reads on this site.

I must admit to being somewhat of a ignoramus about Dick Walker. I know about his reputation and read his column etc for years in AT but apart from what I've read on FM (mainly Ron's contributions) I don't know much about the man and his inner thoughts etc.

Is there a definitive biography of the man that's worth a read? Ron???

There will be one soon written by Barrie Rickards, which I believe is at the publishers now. I for one will be purchasing this book when it comes out!

It's not finished yet Nigel.

Barrie Rickards is writing Walker's biography to be published by Medlar Press, hopefully, later this this year.

All I can say is come on Barrie and Jon Ward-Allen, get the lead out!

Whilst "Walker's Pitch" covered a selection of articles from the first few years (53 to 59) of Angling Times, four other books had further selections of his articles; "Dick Walker's Coarse Fishing", "Dick Walker's Angling", "The best of Dick Walker's Coarse Fishing" and "Dick Walker's Trout Fishing". Further examples of his articles are found within the original Angling Times books 1 - 4.

I have enjoyed reading many of Walker's articles over the years, and am looking forward to the Stone-Walker letters and Barrie's biography. But surely the strength of Fishingmagic is in the original material that is being written? When you see the books above you see the cream of the articles, and very enlightening it is too, but when I scour my old copies of AT many of the articles are far more banal, though always thought provoking. That said, I'd love a CD archive of all of the AT articles!

Mark,

There is no doubt that the strength of Fishing Magic is in the original material. Yet at the same time we do need to look back a bit.

When I meet young anglers who think that the Arlesey Bomb was designed by Matt Hayes and the waggler float by Bob Nudd, I think that it is important to tell the truth occasionally.

In any field of human endeavour, history is the fuel of inspiration.

That was great to read, I've read it before but it is great nostalga, Walker was a one off. I still dip into his writings and i always find something new to marvel at, Buller is about the same price with his writing.

What about this for an idea?:

The A.T. get Marsdens Musings in exchange for F.M. getting Walkers Patch?

P.S. I don't read the A.T! (I do really)

And further,

Some 16 years ago there appeared a historic book covering the great anglers of past by a certain Mr. You Know Who.

It was so full of inaccuracies and blantant ommissions, that it remains one of the worst angling books ever written!

'In any field of human endeavour, history is the fuel of inspiration.'

I like that Ron.

Well now.

It says here http://www.magicalia.com/CaseStudy.asp?ID=5 his book, Advanced Coarse Fishing, is rated by the Angling Times (EMAP) as one of the most important fishing books of all time.

Mind you there is also some nonsense about "Graham's A-list group of regular contributors and columnists includes such well known angling writers as Bob Roberts and Gary Knowles" but makes no mention of Ron ????

And by the way Mark, "banal" is a word that could never be ascribed to any of Walker's writings.

As you said, they alway gave food for thought.

That doesn't worry me at all Blam.

Even my old friend Eric Hodson had to put up with the fact that how certain erudite authors of the past had decribed the setting up of the big fish scene without even mentioning Eric's name!

And those people, who might be more famous today than Eric, will never ever qualify to clean Eric's boots.

So who's house are you gonna leave your boots outside of? ;-)

I'm not in the same league as Eric Hodson Blam!

This site needs a smiley facility is all I will say.

:o)

Ron,

I think you need to realise the difference between the best of Walker which to me seems timeless, and some of the more mundane stuff. The articles in Walker's pitch were written 50 years ago and apart from advances in tackle are as relevant as when they were written. But I have sample ATs from the 60s, 70s and 80s that also have Walker articles that you would never want to put in a book. They were relevant then, possibly due to events/news stories of the time, but soon after have little real meaning. Some of it is real basic beginner's stuff.

Walker himself said that sometimes it was hard to know what to write about (I know the feeling, shared by Kevin Perkins), yet at other times he felt inspired (these are the articles that really stand out). Few prolific wrietrs are outstanding all of the time. It's a similar case with Sheringham in that mostly we only get to see the very best stuff.

I think the real problem is that today AT has Des and Keith doing their best to live up to Walker's standards, and possibly you know in your heart that they will never get there, and if you're like me and you rate Walker very highly then they don't stand a chance. I still read them though, every week. AM doesn't even have a decent writer! CF has some good stuff. CAT is in danger of being Stef's and Phil's diary though Terry Lampard did a great article this month.

Must go, got an article, or ten, to write...