Walt Unsworth Memorial Service
St Thomas’s Church, Milnthorpe
June 19, 2017
Kate Spencer remembers Walt
I
t’s always a sad time to hear of a bereavement, and it strikes
home harder when it is someone you have been close to
and who you respect for their contribution to things that are
important in our lives. I was outdoors in Scotland when the
news came: Walt Unsworth had died after a short illness. He
was our fi rst Chairman of Outdoor Writers’ Guild, where I was
Secretary and a committee member for over 17 years. He gave
generously advice, help and true support to me, as another
publisher in the fi eld of operations we shared.
Journalists, authors and book readers alike have gained so
much from Walt Unsworth and the company he ran, Cicerone.
Joining us at the Guild as the second phase of our operation
began he brought the many writers’ support and he helped
grow awareness of the potential and benefi ts of the OWG
organisation wide and broad.
The Guild itself was founded on initiatives from Spur
Book publisher Rob Neillands. Seven of us came together to
form OWG at an autumn COLA Trade exhibition, and as the
Secretary I spent a fi rst year with them arranging things. We
put together a Constitution, outlined membership guidelines
and organised the system that would lead to mutual co-
operation and a close working relationship with the then
industry Trade body, Camping & Outdoor Leisure Trade
Association at their hq, the Board and its members.
The Guild mantra then was to bring cohesion to those
reporting from Trade exhibitions and writing about taking gear
into the outdoors. The input which Walt Unsworth delivered
into our activities contributed to the way the Guild grew in
number and stature across the outdoor trade. He was a great
help to the project. Others have come along since and taken
up our early ideas, then after Walt retired from the business he
became, as I am, a Life Member of what is now the Outdoor
Writers & Photographers Guild. Some of it seems like only
yesterday when we were all together.
Walt Unsworth R.I.P.
A gentle walk in memory of Nick Channer
W
e were saddened to hear that Nick Channer, a Guild
member for more than twenty years and a former
Committee member, died in July following a short illness.
Destiny decreed that Nick would write about the history
of the countryside and intriguing houses. He was born at
Home Farm Cottage in the grounds of Elstree boys school at
Woolhampton, Berkshire, where his father was a teacher and
his mother the assistant matron.
The school, a Georgian manor house surrounded by
parkland, almost certainly kindled Nick’s love of walking and
the countryside; it belonged to a former age and, surely, was
the inspiration for his life’s work. Beautiful countryside and
waterways lay beyond the school gates, as well as places
like Mapledurham, featured in Nick’s book Writers’ Houses.
Nick was an only child, and as a youngster he spent
hours at an old typewriter, creating his own stories from the
programme synopses in Radio Times. Visits to his cousins in
Wolverhampton gave him the opportunity to tour Pebble Mill
studios, leading to a lifetime fascination with the place.
The family moved to Thatcham, near Newbury, when
Nick started at secondary school. Then, after leaving school,
he had a couple of offi ce jobs before fi nding work with an
estate agent, writing in his spare time. Later, inspired by
Sunday walks with his old school friend Ian Knapp, Nick
began writing local walking guides for Countryside Books.
Nick steadily broadened his repertoire, and retraced
fi ctional journeys such as Richard Hannay’s possible route
across Scotland in The Thirty-Nine Steps. He branched
out on several overseas forays, covering topics as varied
as the D-Day landings and Sherlock Holmes’ fateful trip to
Switzerland. He wrote regularly for the AA Pub Guide and
the Reading Chronicle, and contributed to broadcasts on
national and local radio.
Besides writing over fi fty books, Nick wrote extensively
for newspapers and magazines including The Daily
Telegraph, Country Walking and Country Life. Meanwhile,
The Guardian featured extracts from his magnum opus
Writers’ Houses, with its foreword by Julian Fellowes.
He travelled widely, talking about his books to clubs and
societies like the WI.
Yet Nick rarely talked about himself, and remained
to the end a very private man. But, says OWPG’s vice-
president Roly Smith, “Nick was a loyal member of the Guild
committee for many years, and also acted as the Guild’s
archivist. He was a gentle, quiet and very kind man, who was
always good company on our many excursions together.
Well read, he was an accomplished writer and meticulous in
his research.”
True to his character, Nick coped with terminal illness by
not talking about it. Eventually, in May, he had confi ded in
his cousin Anne that he was being treated for cancer, but his
death in July came as a massive shock to us all. Nick will be
greatly missed by all who knew him, but his legacy lives on
in his writing.
Based on an original tribute by Anne Hastings
6 Outdoor focus | autumn 2017