 Some Writings
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Current Writings |
About Walt UnsworthLancashire-born Walt began his writing career inspired not by the fells but by the high seas. The first piece he had published, at the age of 17, was about his father, a seaman who had kept a log of a horrendous sea voyage undertaken before the war."He brought an old mud hopper from New Foundland across to Britain in the middle of winter; a craft not supposed to go beyond a river estuary. He kept a log because he thought they wouldn't make it. I wrote up the story for a magazine." Outdoor journalism came later. 
"I had always been a walker, and I took up climbing as well. I decided one
day to write an article on walking for a magazine that no longer exists. There weren'
t many people writing on the subject at that time - there was Showell Styles
of course, and I suppose there must have been others - and then people started asking
me to do other things on walking and climbing."It wasn't long before he was asked to take over the editorship of Climber and Rambler magazine, when its founder, Ron Butchart, died suddenly. "The apocryphal story was that he and a friend had decided to start a magazine; they tossed a coin and if it came down heads it would be a climbing magazine, if it was tails it would have been a fishing magazine. "It was printed on something like bog paper but it was so successful that he sold it to Outram Magazines, which was then part of Holmes McDougall; he sold what was a gold mine really in those days. "Ron died and I got a telephone call late one night from the managing director of Holmes McDougall, who asked me whether I would like to be editor. Apparently Chris Brasher had put him up to this. I had just given up teaching and Brasher had said to the company 'Walt's making his living as a writer, perhaps he would like to be editor'." Walt rose to the challenge and saw the circulation of about 8,000 grow to a healthy 24,000. As if that wasn't enough, while editing Climber he suggested that the publisher produce a magazine specifically for hill walkers. The Great Outdoors Magazine - TGO - was born. Walt is still a regular contributor. Walt is a respected, accomplished author and travel writer, a specialist in the history of mountaineering. He was awarded the ITAS Prize in Italy for Everest, a definitive account of climbing on the mountain in 1992 (see pic below), and the OWG Golden Eagle Award for services to outdoor literature (1996). Walt is also President of the Outdoor Writers' Guild. (By permission of John Manning and TGO)
Receiving the ITAS prize at Trento, 1992 |
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