Derek Alan Trevithick Tangye was a British author who lived in Cornwall for nearly fifty years.
10 Facts About Derek Tangye
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Derek Tangye wrote nineteen books which became known as The Minack Chronicles, about his simple life on a clifftop daffodil farm called Dorminack, affectionately referred to as Minack, at St Buryan in the far west of Cornwall with his wife Jeannie, nee Jean Everald Nicol.
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Derek Tangye had two older brothers Nigel Tangye who was an author and Colin Tangye, a Lloyds Underwriter.
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Derek Tangye was not originally fond of cats and was introduced to Monty, a ginger tom kitten, which was given to Jeannie at the Savoy.
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Derek Tangye told their housekeeper it should live in the kitchen, but Monty eventually ended up sleeping on their bed.
6.
Derek Tangye dedicated one of his books to Monty.
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Jeannie, after whom one of his books was named, died in February 1986 and Derek Tangye lived on in the cottage for another ten years, dying at the age of 84 on 26 October 1996.
8.
Derek Tangye was in the process of writing Shadows just before his death.
9.
Derek Tangye was reluctant to describe himself as a writer, but his simple literary style had appeal for a wide range of people who yearned to escape urban and suburban drudgery.
10.
Derek Tangye's books described the couple's life growing potatoes and flowers on a cliff top smallholding in far west Cornwall.