**** Walker only wrote two decent fishing books

[Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA)]

The Book of the Flemish Giant was written just before WW2 I believe, under the name of Stuart Walker but it was not published until after the war.

"Drop me a Line" was suggested by BB and titled by Elsie May Walker - ****'s mother.

"No Need to Lie" was a result of his mate Pete Thomas's nagging for him to write a book on his angling experiences and red letter days.

At the time Walker wrote Still Water Angling, Walker finished another book that was written in retrospective vein, but it was never published. I understand the manuscript still exists.

Even in those days there was very little money for the writer of specialist books. And keeping an AT column going took up a great deal of his time as well as answering upwards of 50 letters a week.

How he got throught the enormous amount of work that he did is incredible. I think it was Keith who told me that Walker was one of those people who could exist on 3 hours sleep a night.

 

[Graham Marsden (ACA)]

Why Walker wrote so few fishing books

 

[Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA)]

I would ask any younger angler of today to examine the letters of Walker to Graham.

They are similar in many ways to the letters I receieved from **** on how to form a specimen group. Nothing was too much trouble to that man, provided you demonstrated that you were as enthusiastic about angling as he.

However he did not suffer fools

Remember at this time, Walker, was the biggest name in English angling and probably more of a celebrity that a few of the top names of today.

But I doubt very much if you would get a detailed written response like those of Walker from the "Stars" of today.

 

[Andy "the Dog" Nellist (SAA) (ACA)]

Thank you for sharing that with us Graham I really enjoyed reading the letters and critique

 

[Chris Hammond ( RSPB ACA PAC}]

Coo what a privilege! Thanks Graham I enjoyed that little insight into the great man's private thoughts immensely.

Perhaps a cheeky question, but is your own proliferation of angling writing in article form, rather than book form, borne of the same reasons as ****'s?

Re ****'s AT copy, can you imagine anyone taking such pains to write with such style and clarity in this fast paced modern world?

 

[Graham Marsden (ACA)]

Time has been my enemy; not enough of it. When I was writing a lot I wrote articles, and supplied photographs, for most British angling journals and partworks, and several other publications throughout Europe and other parts of the world, including Germany, Sweden, Italy, Australia, USA, France, Israel, Bulgaria, Denmark and probably one or two more I've forgotten about, as well as contributing chapters to quite a lot of books. I just didn't have time to write full books as well. Unlike some authors angling writing was never my full time job and I've always refused to sacrifice actual fishing time to write.

When I eventually finish with this job I may think about a book or two. I am co-author of a book on pole fishing with Mark Wintle that is due out later this year, to be published by Crowood. Mark is the brains behind the actual pole fishing and writing whereas my part is the editing and photography.

 

[Chris Ball 3]

Hello everyone,
It is with some glee that I can announce that Carp-Talk is the first angling publication here in the UK to carry any substance about the long awaited Walker biography book ? In this week?s issue we carries a photo of the front cover of the book and comments by author Barrie Rickards... My business partner Kev Clifford and I both have contributed in the book that will be published at the back end of next month (April)
Regards,
Chris Ball

 

[paul williams 2]

Chris.....this is going to sound strange but i just sent Graham an Email asking about you!!

Could you please mail me your email address and i'll explain......nothing sinister i promise!

 

[paul williams 2]

Thanks Chris....appreciated.

 

[Paul Morley]

Fascinated that our young Christian is familiar with much of this classic work, there is hope for our young!! Yates' 'how to fish' is a little 'niched' and contrived, but beautifully expressed. There is a future for real angling writers.
Graham's letters were really heart-warming for anyone of my generation (42), this is the kind of stuff you could take to your grave!

 

[paul williams 2]

Graham has, i'm sure, had much pleasure from those leters during life....never mind the grave!

We should all feel privaleged to read such items.

 

[Robert Woods (ACA)]

Graham,
Enjoyed reading ****'s letters to you. I noticed he recommends trout pellet paste and groundbait for rivers...did he start pellet revolution.

 

[Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA)]

Welcome to FM Chris.

Have you still got "The Rod"?

**** wrote to me in the 70s recommending trout pellets made up as paste. I never used it, mainly because I was catching plenty of carp on maize.

 

[Graham Marsden (ACA)]

I don't know if it was Walker who started the pellet revolution but it would come as no surprise if he had. I do remember he wrote about trout pellet quite a lot at one time.

'The Rod' that Ron refers to that Chris owns, is the actual rod that caught Clarissa from Redmire Pool.

 

[Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA)]

The words in that letter about trout pellets went something like this.

"Try and get hold of some trout pellets which you should be able to beg from the trout farmers in your part of the world. I can assure you that they make a first class bait for all sorts of fish, not just trout. They consist of balanced fish foods and if you chuck a fair few in, any sort of fish should be educated to take them.

To make them suitable for bait, soak them in water intil soft, then make them into a paste which you can stiffen up with maize flour or something like that.

Good Luck

****

 

[keora]

I once wrote to Richard Walker asking for his views on keeping fish in keepnets.
Within a few days he sent me a two page typed reply, with details of his views.

I'm sure he was as prompt and informative with all the many enquiries he received.

As I've previously mentioned, he wrote his weekly Angling Times column for over 30 years.

I can't think of many other angling writers who today could achieve that.

 

[Green Drake]

I really do not know how Walker found the time to write even two books (or is it four?) He had a family, he bred rabbits, designed and built tackle, was a director in his firm, wrote on photography and genetics plus all the stuff that's been mentioned above.

I think the sixties and seventies were rather special for angling jounalism. I have hundreds of magazines from that era and the standard of debate and the depth of analysis is without equal. There was perhaps no real need for that many books.

Was Walker alone? I think not because the likes of Keal, Hilton, Bucknall, Steuart etc never published many either. As a matter of interest I wonder how many books our esteemed web-master wrote? I do know Graham, that you penned 55 articles for David Hall's Coarse Fishing against **** Walker's 24 (not a lot of people know that!)

Here's another thought: all of the following were "one book wonders" (albeit non-fishing),Haper Lee -To Kill a Mockingbird; Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights; Steela Gibbons - Cold Comfort Farm; Margaret Mitchell -Gone With the Wind

 

[Mark Wintle]

Interesting question - time to write books!

Chris Yates recently took 14 months to write 35,000 well-chosen words. That's slow by most standards if writing is your life.

My current writing workload is 3,000 words per week on top of a full time job and making sure that I get out fishing every week (and I breed spiders - lots of cobwebs at present). Walker was writing 800 words per week in AT plus other articles in T&S, Fishing, Angling etc. so could have found time if he so wished. The length of Walker's AT column does seem to vary over the decades - perhaps different editors gave him different amounts of space?

To get some idea of the article content on FishingMagic compared to the sixties/seventies try this -

There are 4,580 articles on this website plus news reports. That is just about equivalent to the entire run of Creel (4 years) plus Angling (21 years) combined in just six years.

 

[Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA)]

Initially, Walker's contributions to AT were hand written and posted. When he got a secretary they were dictated, typed and posted. In later years when the telex was available they were dictated to his secretary and sent on that.

However it only took Walker on average about 5 minutes to dictate his AT column.

His inner sanctum was his office at Lloyds, not his study at home.

**** had 3 children from his first wife when they lived in Hitchin. They also had a domestic servant running the place I believe.

 

[Neil Maidment]

I've just read Graham's piece (twice) and I'm simply stunned. Those Walker letters must have been an inspiration.

I think I had better track down a copy of 'Advanced Coarse Fishing' and also fall in line for those awaiting the Walker biography.



As a silly aside, shortly after I got my first car in 1972, I drove from Bournemouth to Flitwick just to say "I'd been there". Never found Water Lane though!