Sebastian Walker on Radio 4's "Great Lives"

When I am well into a piece of work I find that listening to an audiobook or talk radio is ideal for me, and the BBC iplayer is an extraordinary resource to explore. I recommend it to any one.

I was going through the archive of  Radio 4's "Great Lives" when I was very pleasantly surprised to see that my late publisher, Sebastian Walker, was Lynn Barber's choice of a great life.

Sebastian died a good many years ago, but it is true to say that he revolutionised the publishing of Children's books. It's telling that both of the programme's contributors, Lynn Barber and Sebastian's sister Mirabel Cecil, both point up the great importance he placed on the work of his illustrators.

I consider myself hugely fortunate that I was one of those illustrators.

Remembering Sebastian Walker

A visit to David Maybury's excellent blog lead me to a short article by the novelist Julie Myerson about Sebastian Walker, founder of Walker Books.
Like Julie, (who was Julie Pike in those days), I was very fond of and somewhat in awe of Sebastian without ever feeling I got to know him at all well.
He was a little bit awkward when it came to small talk, and I was young and a bit reserved myself then. But I remember Sebastian as a very inspiring person, and, in the way that he spoiled his illustrators and authors, and in the grand style in which he entertained us, he made us feel we were the most important ingredients in the very special process of creating books for children.
He was a uniquely talented individual, and I think it is true to say that, through Walker Books, he helped to transform the world of Children's Books very much for the better.
His sister Mirabel Cecil wrote a nice memoir of Sebastian after his premature death in 1991. It was called A Kind of Prospero, and is well worth a read as a portrait of a very interesting man and for the anecdotes it contains on the early days of Walker Books.