Dick Walker is one of those anglers that everyone has heard of, but no-one knows anything about. A true all-rounder, he managed to be a founder member of the Carp Catcher’s Club whilst also making an important contribution to trout fly design. Given that Dick was a prolific and opinionated writer and that he took the lead in developing the first carbon fibre rods, it is more than a little surprising that there hasn’t been a biography of him before now. Barrie has turned out an interesting and unconventional book which looks as much at Walker as a person and a fisherman as it does at the story of his life. There are, I think, a few chapters left to tell, but some time needs to pass before they can be written and in any event, they have more to do with him as a character than as a fisherman.

Make no mistake, this is a fisherman’s biography through and through and it is the fishing that holds centre stage throughout the work, which contains a long personal memoir by Pat Walker, who must have worked extremely closely with the author, judging from the contents. Pat’s chapter is succeeded by fascinating recollections of Dick by a pantheon of the angling greats, ranging from Fred Buller to James Hardy. By no means a conventional account, this is a tremendously readable classic that has broken the curse of angling biographies and has been reprinted over and over again.