I am sure that a few of you will remember Angling Times in the 50s and 60s as well as the early green pages of Anglers Mail, and Anglers World and even Angling Telegraph.
In those days, apart from the regular columns of **** Walker and Bernard Venables, the weekly nationals were written mainly by unsolicited freelance authors. Names that come to mind are Peter Stone, Arthur Oglesby, Tag Barnes, Jim Wheat, Eric J Taylor and many others. I myself also did regular features and centre spreads.
These were the halcyon days of angling journalism. The articles then contained truly vibrant writing, so different from today's cold clinical "how to do it" approach that seems to plug brands of tackle and promote the same old names week in week out.
It was explained to me some time ago that the young anglers of today are not taught creative English and writing at school any more. Therefore they would not be able to understand well written and descriptive prose.
The language of the nasty tabloids and the football terraces is all people understand today.
I guess that's why AT and AM are now produced that way.
What a great shame.