THERE’S a special treat in store for Dick Walker fans with the launch of a brand new book by the Maestro.

Fishing With Walker contains articles from Fishing magazine and Angling Times – none of which have appeared in book form before.

There are sections on all the major species and how to catch them; tactics, hard-hitting and side-splitting comments on a wide range of topical issues and much, much more. Many of the supporting photographs have never previously been published.
Discover which fish was Dick’s favourite species, how he came face to face with a 7lb perch, when barbel bite best, the myth of Redmire and the mystery of the monsters of the Great Ouse.
There are controversial comments on the lack of angling on TV, the close season debate, groundbaiting and shotting patterns.
Joining him on the bankside are his closest fishing pals, Pete Thomas, Fred J Taylor, his brother Ken and their cousin, Joe.
No angler, whether he fishes purely for relaxation, or looks upon the sport as an exciting challenge, can fail to find a treasure trove of information and entertainment between the covers of Fishing With Walker.

Fishing With Walker, a 197-page hardback book, is limited to just 500 numbered and signed copies and is priced at £26.95 + £2.75 First Class p&p.

To order copies direct, just send a cheque for £29.70, made payable to Peter Maskell Publishing Services, to Peter Maskell, Churchview House, Main Street, Wilsthorpe, STAMFORD, PE9 4PE.
Email: petermaskell@btinternet.com
A limited number of 35 signed leather-bound copies in slipcases are also available at £165 + £7 p&p.

BE MY GUEST by Dick Walker is an invitation that you simply can’t refuse. Join the Maestro on the riverbank and lakeside for a Masterclass on how to catch all the major species – barbel and bream, carp and chub, perch and pike, roach and rudd, tench and trout and grayling and salmon.

Share the excitement as you fish as the personal guest of the greatest all-round angler of all times during a calendar year that spans all the variations of temperature and water heights and conditions.

Centrepiece of BE MY GUEST is the iconic Conversation Pieces that were published in Angling Times between 1964-1967. They fulfilled every angler’s dream – the chance to fish with the man who had held the carp record since 1952, the man who had caught eight perch over 4lb, more than 60 chub over 6lb and dozens of double-figure barbel.

The second part of the book is a fascinating insight into the fishing experiences that created an angling legend. Rivers of Memory covers all the major waters on which Dick began his angling career and where many of his most famous exploits took place. There are stories about the Hertfordshire rivers, the Great Ouse, the Cam, Kennet and the Wye, the Hampshire Avon, Arlesey Lake and Redmire Pool.

BE MY GUEST has been published to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the death of Dick Walker. It contains a wealth of the watercraft, observation, technical knowledge and sheer commonsense that made him into such a successful and revered angler. No angler can fail to benefit from its pearls of wisdom!

BE MY GUEST
Dick Walker, 1918-1985
With a Foreword by Chris Yates
Edited by Peter Maskell

This is a limited hardback edition of just 570 copies, numbered and signed by the Editor and Publisher Peter Maskell. The 197 pages contain many period Dick Walker photographs which have never previously been published.

There is also a full leather bound edition of just 30 copies, complete with bespoke, handmade slipcase. Each leather bound book is numbered and signed by Editor and Publisher Peter Maskell.

BE MY GUEST
Dick Walker
Cloth bound books: Limited Edition of 570 with dust jacket
£25.95 plus £2.75 postage and packing.

Full leather bound books: Limited Edition of 30 with handmade slipcase
£165 plus £6.70 postage and packing (Special Delivery)

To order your copy, send a cheque, postal order or banker’s draft, made payable to Peter Maskell Publishing Services, to:

Peter Maskell Publishing Services
PO Box 1163, STAMFORD PE2 2HJ.
Email: petermaskell@btinternet.com

Also available on ebay, here.

Richard Stuart Walker, better known as Dick, was born on 29th May 1918 in Hitchin, Hertfordshire and is widely considered to be one of the most influential anglers in the history of the sport.

He was educated at Friends' School Saffron Walden and St Christopher School Letchworth before going on to Cambridge in 1936. At Caius College he read engineering, however his studies were cut short due to the onset of the Second World War. Dick applied his knowledge of electronics and radio at Farnborough where he worked for the RAE and he played a prominent role in the development of radar technology - a hugely important tool in the war. After the war he joined the family firm, Lloyds and Co. of Letchworth, manufacturers of high quality grass-cutting machinery as technical director where he designed a number of innovative machines.

Having started fishing at the early age of four with his grandfather, Dick Walker became an accomplished angler. He wrote a number of articles for the Fishing Gazette and Angling Times and was very much an advocate of the thinking that one could set out with the deliberate intention of catching big fish. This view was met with considerable scepticism and publicly put down. Dick however, persevered and in 1952 he caught and landed a 44lb carp, at Redmire pool in Herefordshire, which smashed the record at the time which was at 26lb.

Dick was one of the first to apply scientific thought to angling and beyond this, he developed a number of inventions to help. These ranged from the simple, yet effective 'Arlesey Bomb' - a pear shaped weight attached to the line with a pivot - which enabled much longer casting; an electronic bite-alarm, and he was also instrumental in the development of carbon-fibre as a suitable material for fishing rods. He had had extensive experience making his own rods in his workshop with cane and applied this, his scientific know how and enthusiasm to bring modern materials into angling. Examples of his handcrafted Mark IV carp rods are very collectable, changing hands today for thousands of pounds.

He was a member of the Carp Catchers’ Club and instrumental in the great advances in carp fishing methods in the 1950s which have come in many ways to define the carp specimen fishing of today.

Dick wrote many books and for the angling press. His first article on fishing appeared in his school magazine and the first that he was paid for was in the Fishing Gazette. He went on to write regular columns in the London Evening Standard and most memorably, the Angling Times for which he wrote weekly for over 30 years, and was well known for his column "Walker's Pitch".

He died in 1985 after a long battle with cancer.