Edward Joseph (Ted) Walker
FRSL
The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...
(28 November 1934 – 19 March 2004) was a prize-winning English poet, short story writer,
travel writer
The genre of travel literature encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs.
One early travel memoirist in Western literature was Pausanias, a Greek geographer of the 2nd century CE. In the early modern period ...
, TV and radio dramatist and broadcaster.
Early life
Ted Walker was born in
Lancing, West Sussex
Lancing is a large coastal village and civil parish in the Adur district of West Sussex, England, on the western edge of the Adur Valley. It occupies part of the narrow central section of the Sussex coastal plain between smaller Sompting to the ...
, the son of a carpenter from
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
with family roots in the village of
Shrawley
Shrawley is a village and civil parish in the Malvern Hills District in the county of Worcestershire, England. The village is situated on the western bank of the River Severn. The northern and southern boundaries of the parish are two small tribu ...
in rural
Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...
who had found work in the south-coast construction industry. Walker was educated at
Steyning Grammar School and
St John's College, Cambridge
St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...
, where he read modern languages. His earlier poems and later autobiographical work, in particular ''The High Path'', show that his childhood appeared to have been unusually happy and totally remembered. However, there was tragedy too: both of his paternal uncles, who lived in shared accommodation together with Walker's parents, grandparents and aunt, were killed in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
; George in North Africa and Jack on
Shoreham Beach
Shoreham Beach is a Local Nature Reserve in Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex. It is owned and managed by Adur District Council.
The beach has vegetated shingle, which is an internationally rare habitat, with flora including yellow horned poppy, ...
.
At the age of 15 he met Lorna Benfell, and almost immediately after they finished college they were married (in 1956, at
St Mary de Haura Church, Shoreham-by-Sea). At first they lived in west London and worked as teachers, she in
Tottenham
Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Waltham ...
and he in
Paddington
Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Paddi ...
and
Southall
Southall () is a large suburban county of West London, England, part of the London Borough of Ealing and is one of its seven major towns. It is situated west of Charing Cross and had a population of 69,857 as of 2011. It is generally divided ...
. They had four children.
It was at school that Walker and John Cotton, a like-minded colleague, founded a poetry magazine, ''Priapus'', an attractive if amateur production, copies of which are now very rare. Walker published some work in the early numbers, the beginning of his poetic career.
Poetry and short stories
In 1963 Walker obtained a teaching post in
Bognor Regis
Bognor Regis (), sometimes simply known as Bognor (), is a town and seaside resort in West Sussex on the south coast of England, south-west of London, west of Brighton, south-east of Chichester and east of Portsmouth. Other nearby towns ...
and from there moved to Chichester High School. He had also started to write poetry regularly and of a quality that made it welcome in journals such as ''
The Listener'', ''
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...
'', the ''
Times Literary Supplement
''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp.
History
The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...
'' and the ''
London Magazine
''The London Magazine'' is the title of six different publications that have appeared in succession since 1732. All six have focused on the arts, literature and miscellaneous topics.
1732–1785
''The London Magazine, or, Gentleman's Monthly I ...
''. It drew the attention of
William Plomer
William Charles Franklyn Plomer (10 December 1903 – 20 September 1973) was a South African and British novelist, poet and literary editor. He also wrote a series of librettos for Benjamin Britten. He wrote some of his poetry under the pseud ...
, then poetry editor at
Jonathan Cape
Jonathan Cape is a London publishing firm founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape, who was head of the firm until his death in 1960.
Cape and his business partner Wren Howard set up the publishing house in 1921. They established a reputation ...
and a powerful figure in the poetry world. Walker had also submitted poems to ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', where
Howard Moss
Howard Moss (January 22, 1922 – September 16, 1987) was an American poet, dramatist and critic. He was poetry editor of ''The New Yorker'' magazine from 1948 until his death and he won the National Book Award in 1972 for ''Selected Poems''.
B ...
made his work welcome. The fee which Walker received for his first poem to be published in ''The New Yorker'', "Breakwaters" (published June 1963) helped him to move back to his native Sussex. Looking for a new source of income, Walker taught himself the art of short story writing, and his first short story, "Estuary", appeared in ''The New Yorker'' in April 1964.
Other key influences on his literary development included the Welsh poet
Leslie Norris
George Leslie Norris (21 May 1921 – 6 April 2006), was a prize-winning Welsh poet and short story writer. He taught at academic institutions in Britain and the United States, including Brigham Young University. Norris is considered one of ...
and canon of Chichester Cathedral, the Scotsman
Andrew Young
Andrew Jackson Young Jr. (born March 12, 1932) is an American politician, diplomat, and activist. Beginning his career as a pastor, Young was an early leader in the civil rights movement, serving as executive director of the Southern Christian L ...
, both near neighbours, as well as the Welsh filmmaker and poet
John Ormond
John Ormond (3 April 1923 – 4 May 1990), also known as John Ormond Thomas, was a Welsh poet and film-maker.
Biography
John Ormond Thomas was born on 3 April 1923 in Wales, at Dunvant, near Swansea. He studied philosophy and English at Swanse ...
and the critic
Robert Gittings
Robert William Victor Gittings CBE (1 February 1911 – 18 February 1992), was an English writer, biographer, BBC Radio producer, playwright and poet. In 1978, he was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for ''The Older Hardy''.
Early life ...
.
Walker's first book of verse, ''Fox on a Barn Door'', focused on the
Sussex
Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...
countryside and coast. The titles of a good third of the poems – such as "Breakwaters", "The Skate Fishers" and "On the Sea Wall" are about the shoreline of Lancing and
Shoreham. The
South Downs
The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the Eastbourne Downland Estate, East Sussex, in the east. ...
likewise provided inspiration.
Journalism and broadcasting
In the 1970s Walker was a contributor to his local newspaper, ''The Chichester Observer'', where his regular column on West Sussex villages fascinated (and often enraged) the county set. He also began broadcasting with
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
local radio and TV. In 1979 he worked on a TV dramatisation with BBC
Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
producer Colin Rose. It was the start of a productive relationship. Their output included ''Big Jim and the Figaro Club'' (1981) and ''A Family Man'' (1983). ''Big Jim'', a series of comedy films set during the postwar building boom, extolled the comradeship which, for Walker, epitomised working-class life "in them far-off days of the Figaro Club before the world turned lax and sour".
''A Family Man'' dealt with several generations of father-son relationships, drawing deeply on Walker's own family history.
Walker also wrote plays for Shaun McLaughlin in BBC radio drama and adapted
Kenneth Grahame
Kenneth Grahame ( ; 8 March 1859 – 6 July 1932) was a British writer born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is most famous for ''The Wind in the Willows'' (1908), a classic of children's literature, as well as ''The Reluctant Dragon (short story), T ...
's ''
The Wind in the Willows
''The Wind in the Willows'' is a children's novel by the British novelist Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. It details the story of Mole, Ratty, and Badger as they try to help Mr. Toad, after he becomes obsessed with motorcars and gets ...
'' (1995) for TVC (Television Cartoons)' animated production with a voice cast including
Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett (born 9 May 1934) is an English actor, author, playwright and screenwriter. Over his distinguished entertainment career he has received numerous awards and honours including two BAFTA Awards, four Laurence Olivier Awards, and tw ...
,
Rik Mayall
Richard Michael Mayall (7 March 1958 – 9 June 2014) was an English actor, stand-up comedian and writer. He formed a close partnership with Ade Edmondson while they were students at Manchester University and was a pioneer of alternative ...
,
Michael Palin
Sir Michael Edward Palin (; born 5 May 1943) is an English actor, comedian, writer, television presenter, and public speaker. He was a member of the Monty Python comedy group. Since 1980, he has made a number of travel documentaries.
Palin w ...
and
Michael Gambon
Sir Michael John Gambon (; born 19 October 1940) is an Irish-English actor. Regarded as one of Ireland and Britain's most distinguished actors, he is known for his work on stage and screen. Gambon started his acting career with Laurence Olivi ...
.
Later life
For most of his working life (1971–92) Walker earned a living as Professor of Creative Writing at
New England College
New England College (NEC) is a private liberal arts college in Henniker, New Hampshire. As of Fall 2020 New England College's enrollment was 4,327 students (1,776 undergraduate and 2,551 graduate). The college is regionally accredited by the Ne ...
, an American liberal arts academy that had a British campus in West Sussex, while pursuing his writing and other great passion, travel. He was a frequent visitor to Spain, and in 1989 he published an account of his experiences and impressions of the country, ''In Spain''. Although this was Walker's only significant venture into travel writing, it was greeted by critics as one of the finest portraits of the country. For example,
Jan Morris
(Catharine) Jan MorrisJan Morris, Paul Clements, University of Wales Press, 2008, p. 7 (born James Humphry Morris; 2 October 192620 November 2020) was a Welsh historian, author and travel writer. She was known particularly for the ''Pax Brita ...
listed it as one of her favourite books on Spain, describing it as "rich in details and sensations". After a long hiatus Walker returned to poetry with ''Mangoes on the Moon'' (1999), with many poems inspired by his travels in Australia.
In 1987 Lorna Walker died after a long battle against cancer. A year later Walker married their close friend, Audrey Hicks, who had been similarly bereaved.
In ''The Last of England'' Walker tells the moving story of Lorna's disfiguring illness, and his own grief at being robbed of their anticipated years of retirement together. The cancer also serves as a metaphor for what Walker saw as the unrelenting decay of the England so lovingly described in ''The High Path''.
In 1997 Ted and Audrey Walker moved to the village of
Alcalali near
Valencia, Spain
Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area also ...
, where he died in 2004.
Honours
Walker's early poetry won many prizes, including the
Eric Gregory Award
The Eric Gregory Award is a literary award given annually by the Society of Authors for a collection by British poets under the age of 30. The award was founded in 1960 by Dr. Eric Gregory to support and encourage young poets. In 2021, the seven ...
(1964) and the
Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize
The Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize was awarded by the Poetry Society of London for a collection of poetry. It is named after Alice Hunt Bartlett who was the American editor of the society's ''Poetry Review'' from 1923 to 1949. The prize was establish ...
. He was the first winner of the
Cholmondeley Award
The Cholmondeley Awards () are annual awards for poetry given by the Society of Authors in the United Kingdom. Awards honour distinguished poets, from a fund endowed by the Dowager Marchioness of Cholmondeley in 1966. Since 1991 the award has bee ...
(1966).
Walker was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Literature
The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...
in 1975 (he resigned this title in 1997).
Southampton University
, mottoeng = The Heights Yield to Endeavour
, type = Public research university
, established = 1862 – Hartley Institution1902 – Hartley University College1913 – Southampton University Coll ...
granted Walker an honorary D.Litt. in 1987.
Literary work
Poetry
*''Fox on a Barn Door'' (1965)
*''The Solitaries (1969) – winner of the
Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize
The Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize was awarded by the Poetry Society of London for a collection of poetry. It is named after Alice Hunt Bartlett who was the American editor of the society's ''Poetry Review'' from 1923 to 1949. The prize was establish ...
*''The Night Bathers'' (1970)
*''Gloves to the Hangman'' (1973)
*''Burning the Ivy'' (1978)
*''Hands at a Live Fire'' (1987)
*''Mangoes on the Moon'' (1999)
*''The Fight'' (1997)
Short stories
*''You've Never Heard Me Sing'' (1985)
*''He Danced with a Chair'' (2001)
Autobiographies
*''The High Path'' (1982) winner of the
J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography
PEN Ackerley Prize (or, J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography) is awarded annually by English PEN for a literary autobiography of excellence, written by an author of British nationality and published during the preceding year. The winner receive ...
*''The Last of England'' (1993)
Children's books
*''The Lion's Cavalcade'' (with Alan Aldridge, 1981)
*''Granddad's Seagulls'' (1994)
Travel
*''In Spain'' (1987)
Television and radio
*''The Gaffer''
*''The Family Man''
*''Big Jim & the Figaro Club''
*''The Wind in the Willows''
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Ted
1934 births
2004 deaths
English short story writers
People educated at Steyning Grammar School
Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
New England College faculty
English male short story writers
English male poets
20th-century English poets
20th-century British short story writers
20th-century English male writers
People from Lancing, West Sussex