I know very little more about this broadcaster having finished the book than I did at its opening page.

Eric is making a programme for BBC Radio 4, to go out in early January around the time of Norman Nicholson’s centenary. Eric said he had always admired the panel who are “enormously skilled people”, rarely stumped when giving their impromptu answers.

I loved doing the programme and could have carried on doing it until my clogs fell off but the travel was getting very wearying. It’s entirely my decision,” he insists, his mellifluous Cumbrian drawl booming about the empty hall of Manchester Grammar School where we are sitting ahead of his final broadcast. Radio 4 newsreader Kathy Clugston, who will become the show's first female host, said she was "honoured and excited" to be stepping into the shoes of "the great Eric Robson.

The 73-year-old has been cited in the New Year Honours list for services to tourism, following a five-decade career as a presenter, documentary-maker and author specialising in the region and its natural beauty. Eric said: “Working with Gill Haigh and the talented management team at Cumbria Tourism has been a privilege and a pleasure. com/) and they kindly invited us over to talk about Walpole, his work, and why the reputation of this once leading novelist has faded, so that he’s now remembered, if at all, almost entirely for his Cumberland tetralogy. The sheer number of people being encouraged by media studies courses to go into a shrinking industry.The former Gardeners’ Question Time presenter was appointed to the honorary role in 2019 following a long-standing association with Cumbria Tourism, including a number of years as chairman. He was awarded an OBE for his services to tourism in the 2021 New Year Honours List and he will continue to champion the county’s tourism industry on the national stage. His documentaries range from Great Railway Journeys of the World to the classic BBC series with the fellwalker Alfred Wainwright. And if anyone from BBC or Granada TV is reading this, why don’t you think about a full-scale dramatisation of the Herries novels?

Coincidentally she also has an adopted chicken named after his successor – Kathy Cluckson – of which the same cannot be said. The Theatre will be premiering its new dramatisation of Walpole’s novel Rogue Herries on 23 March (full details from http://www.Read the witch-drowning episode in Rogue Herries, the burning of Fell House in Vanessa or the bleakly terrifying duel between Uhland and John Herries in The Fortress if you want to see Walpole at his dark and terrifying greatest. The former chairman of BBC Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time has lived in the area for much of his life and is honorary president of the Cumbria Tourism organisation. Thanks to a superbly experienced and skilled board of directors together with the most brilliant staff team we have come through this and supported Cumbria’s valuable visitor economy to the very best of our ability.