MarkTheSpark
Senior Member
I see in the Telegraph that my first editor, Peter Collins, has passed away. He was the person who gave me an opportunity to break into journalism after I had written a letter of complaint about the quality of Sea Angler. He wrote back saying he loved my letter, and there was a vacancy for a trainee journalist; would I like to apply? And so I left a job manning a petrol station and set off north from Dorset on my little motorcycle. I afterwards found out that I was one of two front-runners and he offered the casting vote to his secretary, who picked me because she thought I was the best looking!
As I have noted elsewhere in this forum, Peter ghosted Ivan Marks' column in AT, and was among the pioneers of angling journalism. He launched Sea Angler and Sporting Gun magazines and was launch editor of them both. They are still going strong.
You'll get a good flavour of the kind of man Peter was by reading the obituary - and please do, it's a great tribute to a man with the spirit of a Jack Russell Terrier.
Working for Pete was an education on many levels. He was a very difficult person and demanded what he saw as perfection - itself a rather subjective judgement. But he was a man who was utterly devoted to serving his readership, and truly loved angling. Everyone who wrote to Peter - with no exceptions at all - got a reply. Today's editors please note. He was a good match angler, especially on the Fens, though he had an unhealthy hatred of pike and, in particular, zander.
Peter railed against officialdom like nobody I have known. I admired that greatly. On our monthly jaunts to pass the final pages of Sea Angler, which necessitated a trip to Kings Lynn, Peter would often veer right and take me on tours of Sandringham's by-roads and tracks, which he knew like the back of his hand (along with the rest of Norfolk).
One afternoon as we bumped along a track dodging tame pheasants in his ghastly green Ford Cortina, we met a police Land Rover with two Royal Protection Officers coming the other way. Pete just stopped right in front of them and, when they came to ask what he thought he was doing, gave them a right mouthful in his Cap'n Ahab Norfolk drawl about having a right to drive the by-ways, which he did. They scuffed off muttering.
To be perfectly honest, Pete was hell to work with, and we fell out. I was then transferred to Angling Times as a reporter on a further three months 'trial' and, when he told me this was to be my fate, Peter said: "I think the editor has made a big mistake taking you on, but if you make a success of it, I will be the first person to shake your hand and congratulate you."
In point of fact, he never really spoke to me again. Now older, I regret that I did not force the issue and try to mend the wound. But I have been aware from the first day I worked with Peter that he was a one-off, and a remarkable person.
Let's hope they're well-organised in Heaven, or Pete's going to give them hell!
As I have noted elsewhere in this forum, Peter ghosted Ivan Marks' column in AT, and was among the pioneers of angling journalism. He launched Sea Angler and Sporting Gun magazines and was launch editor of them both. They are still going strong.
You'll get a good flavour of the kind of man Peter was by reading the obituary - and please do, it's a great tribute to a man with the spirit of a Jack Russell Terrier.
Working for Pete was an education on many levels. He was a very difficult person and demanded what he saw as perfection - itself a rather subjective judgement. But he was a man who was utterly devoted to serving his readership, and truly loved angling. Everyone who wrote to Peter - with no exceptions at all - got a reply. Today's editors please note. He was a good match angler, especially on the Fens, though he had an unhealthy hatred of pike and, in particular, zander.
Peter railed against officialdom like nobody I have known. I admired that greatly. On our monthly jaunts to pass the final pages of Sea Angler, which necessitated a trip to Kings Lynn, Peter would often veer right and take me on tours of Sandringham's by-roads and tracks, which he knew like the back of his hand (along with the rest of Norfolk).
One afternoon as we bumped along a track dodging tame pheasants in his ghastly green Ford Cortina, we met a police Land Rover with two Royal Protection Officers coming the other way. Pete just stopped right in front of them and, when they came to ask what he thought he was doing, gave them a right mouthful in his Cap'n Ahab Norfolk drawl about having a right to drive the by-ways, which he did. They scuffed off muttering.
To be perfectly honest, Pete was hell to work with, and we fell out. I was then transferred to Angling Times as a reporter on a further three months 'trial' and, when he told me this was to be my fate, Peter said: "I think the editor has made a big mistake taking you on, but if you make a success of it, I will be the first person to shake your hand and congratulate you."
In point of fact, he never really spoke to me again. Now older, I regret that I did not force the issue and try to mend the wound. But I have been aware from the first day I worked with Peter that he was a one-off, and a remarkable person.
Let's hope they're well-organised in Heaven, or Pete's going to give them hell!
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