Dave Walker retired as a medic in 2011. Early life at Hillhouse and Waterloo, Huddersfield, whilst attending Dalton PS and Huddersfield New College. Graduated Liverpool University, then roughly ten years each in universities, the NHS and Occupational Health. Around 1990 he started to write a diary. Gradually this migrated to bits and pieces about his history; an autobiography of sorts in episodes. Spells at Huddersfield University and Sheffield Hallam helped him develop some creative writing skills and he adapted some of the autobiographical pieces for a wider readership. He got stranded during his first editing job and rapidly had to learn creating, designing and publishing. Shalliley Books was born.
Some of his other publications are listed below.
Journal of Occupational Medicine
Four pieces were accepted for this journal during 2008 and 2009, when the author was working as a medic for West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue. They are about singing and narrowboat cruising as well as occupational medicine. The messages are universal. First, we are obliged to measure our strengths and weakness and plan for improvement, despite the bureaucratic nightmare that travels alongside. Second, it is not only the NHS that is a monopoly supplier. Finally, can we please factor in ageing processes as part of career planning? (2008, 2009)
Northern Cricket Society Journal
Mick Bourne commissioned any piece. I chose my experiences of cricket in the Bahamas, part of two weeks I spent with my family celebrating our daughter’s wedding. Booklet 2010, p8
Journal of The Cricket Society
I met Derek Barnard when he came up to Huddersfield. Did he want some copy? “Send it me.” After the Pennine Cricket Conference 2009, I submitted a piece on friendly cricket and the journal accepted it. (2009)
Huddersfield Examiner
This was part of a series, illustrating the funnier side of getting older. I did one on cricket, based on the odd moments from Almondbury Casuals. (2008)
‘It’s a Great Day for Being a Boy,’ from ‘All in a Day’s Cricket: An anthology of outstanding cricket writing’ compiled by Brian Levison
Brian contacted kindly contacted me for a piece. I sent him a copy of ‘It’s Not Lord’s’ and he chose this. (2012)
Its a great day for being a boy
Almondbury Casuals CC
A gentleman’s cricket club, originating in the 1940s, but firmly rooted in the amateur traditions of the mid eighteenth century. ‘Cricket in Perspective 2’ covers history from 1981 to 2005, a follow up to Jim Netherwood’s ‘Cricket in Perspective 1’. (2005)
Gentlemen, Gypsies and Jesters – A collection of chapters on wandering cricket clubs published by Fairfield Books. (2013)
Other pieces
During his working life he produced an MD (Huntington’s Disease) and an MSc (Early Retirement). He also wrote papers on Huntington’s Disease, Calcium and Vitamin D metabolism, Management of Amputees, Fracture Neck of Femur in the Elderly and Student Counselling.
Shalliley Books 