Fishing with Walker, edited by Peter Maskell

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Recently there have been a number of books containing some of Richard Walker's writings, as well as books full of chapters from people who knew him.

This, the latest from Peter Maskell is sure to be popular and confirms again why Walker was our greatest angling author.

It's another one for my bookshelf.

Fishing with Walker is a limited edition of 500 signed hardback copies

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Unfortunately most will not get to read it.

Maybe someone will do the "Complete Works of Richard Walker" in paperback one day.

Think about it Mr Maskell.

Mind you, 1560 articles taken from Anging Times would make a very thick book; in addition to Still Water Angling and all his other works.

Interesting comment by Mark re Walker only writing about what he had direct experience of. Walker was advised this by an editor early in his writing career, and passed the same advice on to his writing friends but he didn't always stick with it. It caught him out badly in the 70s when waggler floats became popular and he was critical of them. It was obvious that Walker didn't know what he was talking about. Peter Stone, who had seen these floats in action on the Thames and tried them himself, was much better placed to comment. Of course, sometimes a writer has to write about things based on his/her research and imagination, otherwise where would history/fiction writing come from?

It would take many volumes for all of Walker's writing in book form: I once estimated he'd had about 3 million words published. He turns up in many magazines.

Mark Wintle said:

He turns up in many magazines.

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Not nearly as much as someone mentions him on here.......:wh

Kevin Perkins said:

Not nearly as much as someone mentions him on here.......:wh

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Who's that?

Mark Wintle said:

It would take many volumes for all of Walker's writing in book form: I once estimated he'd had about 3 million words published. He turns up in many magazines.
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I am told that the complete works of William Shakespeare total about 900,000 words. The King James version of The Bible is about the same.

If we consider Walker's written work, we can estimate a figure of 1560 x 1000 = 1,560,000 words and this is only for his Angling Times columns which may have averaged about 1,000 words per column. This was a figure Walker himself stated on occasions.

Walker's critique of what we call the "Waggler Float" is worthy of comment. But there were other areas where I think he was quite wrong, the prime one being a lack of understanding of inertia when applied to the mechanics of the lift float. Dr Terry Coulson, a physicist, put him right about that. The full story, including the letters on the matter can be read in Chapter 15 - "On resistance and streamlining", page 137 - "Richard Walker - Biography of an Angling Legend" by Prof. Barrie Rickards.

Ron The Hat Clay said:

I am told that the complete works of William Shakespeare total about 900,000 words

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But how many did he write and could the same be said of DW?