Tribute to Barrie Rickards
I got in trouble at school for buying Barrie's book 'Fishing for Big Pike' as a prize rather than a boring textbook, and he was a hero of mine ever since. In the last year or so I got to know Barrie, and my wife Sandy and I were fortunate enough to be able to record Barrie talking to Des Taylor on their life and times and many memorable and also amusing experiences. This was done for the charity Angling Heritage that my wife set up to preserve angling's social history by recording different figures and preserving tapes, photos etc. Barrie was a "must record" candidate and this recording is being transcribed into a book, also containing CD's of the interview. All profits raised from the sale will go to the charity to do further recordings.
(The first one was Fred J Taylor and Fred Buller, who has kindly become Patron to the charity with Chris Yates as a Trustee)
The book, when finished will be a fitting tribute to one of the great names in angling of recent years. To misquote Samuel Butler slightly "A man is not dead until he is forgotten", and through the recordings and Barrie's work, this will be a long time yet. We have lost a great ambassador for the sport.