{"id":1391,"date":"2008-09-18T13:59:50","date_gmt":"2008-09-18T12:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/blog\/?p=1391"},"modified":"2015-03-24T16:53:42","modified_gmt":"2015-03-24T16:53:42","slug":"christopher-walter-always-asked-the-right-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=1391","title":{"rendered":"Christopher Walter always asked the right question"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/ray-school-trip-x650.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5907\" src=\"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/ray-school-trip-x650.jpg\" alt=\"ray school trip x650\" width=\"650\" height=\"505\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/ray-school-trip-x650.jpg 650w, https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/ray-school-trip-x650-300x233.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/a>By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n<p>Christopher Walter sat next to me in class at Ashford Boys Grammar School in Kent. He was smart and went on to the sixth form while I went off to seek my fortune in the newspaper game. He called me urgently one weekend long ago because John Steinbeck had checked into the hotel where he worked part-time. We were both huge fans.<\/p>\n<p>Aged 15, we went with a group on a school trip to Switzerland. In the photo, Christopher is looking very smart fourth from the left and I&#8217;m on the right with one hand inside my jacket \u00a0while the teacher has his arm on my shoulder for some reason.<\/p>\n<p>As we grew up, Christopher and I tried to stay in touch but I had left for Canada and for a 10-year period the miles were too great.<\/p>\n<p>I tracked him down at last in Bristol where he ran a pub. I walked in one lunchtime and asked the young woman behind the bar if she would announce that someone wanted to see the landlord but not to give my name.<\/p>\n<p>Christopher came down, looked at me for the first time in 10 years and said, &#8220;What are you having?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He died a couple of years ago, but I shall still raise a birthday toast to a great friend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ray Bennett Christopher Walter sat next to me in class at Ashford Boys Grammar School in Kent. He was smart and went on to the sixth form while I went off to seek my fortune in the newspaper game. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=1391\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1263,10,12],"tags":[354,452],"class_list":["post-1391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-memory-lane","category-notes","category-places","tag-ashford-boys-grammar-school","tag-christopher-walter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1391"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5908,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1391\/revisions\/5908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}