Bernard Venables and Richard Walker?

[Kevanf1]

I have just read that there may have been some bad feeling between Bernard Venables and Richard Walker. Apparently Bernard is 'reputed' to have said that he "wouldn't have stood in the same county as Richard Walker". Yet it is documented that Bernard gave a running commentary during a radio show broadcast not a few feet behind Richard Walker.

Is this one of those urban myths from the world of angling? It does sound rather upsetting

[DaceAce]

They worked closely together in the 50s when Angling Times was launched. In Venables' autobiography ' A Stream of Life' he is scathing of Walker but by the time that was written many years had passed since Walker's death in 1985 and I suspect the two met rarely in latter years. Some think these are the ramblings of an old man.

In the late 1940s and early 50s Venables was very well known in the angling world yet Walker was comparatively unknown. Walker's record carp and column in Angling Times gave him a platform to gain a great deal of publicity and Venables later felt that he (Venables) had been pushed from the top spot which may have irked in later life. Walker possibly felt the same when Ivan Marks became very well known in the early 1970s.

[Santiago]

There was thread on this subject, it was posted about a year ago, but I have not been abvle to find it!

[Gary Bills]

Venables (at least in later life) seemed to think Walker had got him "sacked" from the AT. He accused Walker of immaturity, recognising his innovative mind, while denying his intelligence; - and while denying his artistic side and bewailing the impact that Still Water Angling had, - a book that Venables actually helped to get into print!

[Kevanf1]

No need to get upset Kefanf1
They are both dead and buried so its nothing to concern yourself about.

That said Venables was a nice old gent and a fine artist but in no way could he be considered the angler, innovator or thinker Richard Walker was.

It's upsetting because one does hold both of these in high esteem. While acknowledging that both were quite different in their approach perhaps? I see Venables as the quiet contemplative angler while Walker was very much the scientific and precise angler. I think we all (that may be rather all encompassing) strive to be a little bit of each of these two giants. It is rather sad to think they were frictional towards each other. But, I suppose not everybody can get one with everybody else.

Maybe I'm becoming spoiled by this forum

[Kingfisher]

I always think of us anglers as peaceful beings that enjoy the tranquilty whilst fishing and as being pretty mellow in our ways. Strange how people fall out over things.

[Maggot's Dad]

"Morning all",

....one thing that we should all bear in mind with any of our "revered figureheads" is that the vast majority of us only know of one aspect of these people ..... a common interest. We know very little of their "other side" (and Dick was known to be rather scathing at times, so we are led to believe).

My view......so what if they didn't get on "at times", there probably were conflicts of interest on occasions, thats how things progress. The most important thing that we should remember of them both, is what they both did for Angling and in turn, for us today.

We are lucky to have had the great fortune to have "known" of people such as them.

[Ryeman]

I remember an article Walker wrote in which he gently poked fun at the flowery writing style of some angling journalists. Describing a trip to the river he wrote "The purple loosestrife was striving and the winter water looked profoundly promising" Surely this was a send up of Venables.

( Goodness knows why I remember this. My memory is terrible generally...)

Alan

[Gary Bills]

I remember an article Walker wrote in which he gently poked fun at the flowery writing style of some angling journalists. Describing a trip to the river he wrote "The purple loosestrife was striving and the winter water looked profoundly promising" Surely this was a send up of Venables.

( Goodness knows why I remember this. My memory is terrible generally...)

Alan

Walker thought Venables had borrowed his style from the poet Edmund Blunden, but that Venables didn't do it half so well....

[JerryC]

As we know the Walker/Venables relationship was somewhat 'strained' for various reasons. Although he founded AT Venables was surely smart enough to realize who it's main asset was. Their relationship was partly covered by Barrie Rickards in ‘Richard Walker - Biography of an Angling Legend’.