Talking Walking is 10 years old

Way back in February 2008 we published our first podcast episode on talkingwalking.net an interview with Simon Pope – the interview itself had taken place in a student room at Banff Centre for Arts in Canada in November the previous year.  Simon was a guest artist for a Locative Media Residency and Andrew Stuck was a participant in a Walking and Art Residency.

As it happens romance also blossomed for Simon that month too – just ask his partner Sarah Cullen, where it was they first met……

While in Banff, Andrew had interviewed a dozen walking artists and set out to publish them as podcasts in monthly episodes in the following year, but that didn’t quite come to pass, as he hadn’t anticipated the time it would take to edit each of them!  Andrew caught the bug of recording interviews and already knowing a few others working in the field of walking, he began interviewing them too. So Talking Walking became far more than just an anthology of Walking Artists, and instead grew into a library that includes a diversity of voices from across the field of walks and walking.

So how to mark such an anniversary when there are so many more important life and society changing anniversaries to commemorate?

Throughout the year, we are going to be highlighting interviews from the Talking Walking archive, and Andrew has been able to track down a number of his original subjects and asked them to bring us up to date with their work, and we will share these with you.

The current episode is an interview with Nick Hallissey, from Country Walking magazine, and he has boldly printed an interview of Andrew that you can read in the March issue of Country Walking – on sale now!  All listeners and readers of this e-bulletin can benefit from a reduced subscription of Country Walking and discounts off our walkshops – read more here. Go on, treat yourself to a listen – there are more than 80 interview to choose from and all are free to download or to stream.

So what has been going on this week for Talking Walking?

Apart from updating some of the original webpages, Andrew has been out along the Regent’s canal recording an interview with George Fort, the brains behind Gooza a web-based app that collects stories about places and walking routes in London.  Andrew was introduced to George by Tom Bolton, historian and author of several engaging books about London for walkers, who he had interviewed for Talking Walking back in 2010.  This stretch of the canal was also the spot where Andrew recorded an interview with epic adventurer Nick Hunt. There is a fair bit of editing going on too, with an interview with Tom Hall, Editorial Director of Lonely Planet travel guides, on the editing suite.  While the final touches are being made to an interview with Grace Adam, a sculptor who has put whimsical messages on finger post signs in Queen’s Wood to encourage those on foot to get lost in the woods.

We have also created a Twitter account @talkwalk10 where you can follow what Talking Walking interviewees are currently posting and #talkingwalking10 to capture events linked to past interviewees.

Is this the most woolly hats on a Hackney street?

It was certainly a cold day for a walk, but everyone appeared to enjoy our most recent Exploration into the Urban Forest with Paul Wood, author of London’s Street Trees as we walked through the diverse forest of Haggerston.

As Spring starts to emerge, days get lighter for longer, and a little warmer, why not join us for future explorations, in Pimlico (25 Feb), Chiswick (11 Mar), Herne Hill (18 Mar) and Crouch End (8 April).  You can even purchase a Loyalty Card on line and save money or book individual walks in advance to get early bird discounts.

And must watch TV is ITV’s Britain’s Favourite Walks – only available for a limited time.

Thanks for reading, and we hope to see you on a walk in the not too distant future.

All about walking blog posting is unpredictable – if it’s raining biblical downpours then a blog post is more likely to appear, in most other weather conditions we are out walking and not blogging on a keyboard…..