Derek Tangye

Derek Tangye (1912-1996) was a very well known author who lived in Cornwall for the most part of his life from the 1950s onwards. He wrote more than twenty books which became known as the Minack Chronicles - all about life on a flower farm situated between Penzance and Land's End.

The book I read was 'The Way to Minack'. I was hoping it would tell me about how he and his wife, Jeannie, came to be at 'Minack', a quiet cottage in a isolated spot of Cornwall. However, this book is an autobiography (as are all the Minack chronicles) which leads up to the end of his time in London, just before moving to Minack. Derek had never been away from Minack in fourteen years and a friend planted seeds of doubt by asking 'What do you miss?' (about London). So he and Jeannie take a trip to London to remind themselves of why they left in the first place.

In the early days, before Cornwall, Derek went to boarding school in Harrow where he failed his exams. His father had a friend in Unilever who helped Derek to get a job there as an office boy - a black city suit, bowler hat and umbrella affair. Whilst employed at Unilever he enrolled for a course in journalism. His first article in print was written for the News Chronicle and contained 500 words about archery. He handed in his resignation at Unilever after a phrenologist declared he had a future in journalism!

During this time, with no University background and without even the School Certificate, Derek had no money and needed financial help from his parents. He became a part time salesman for a while, first of electric light bulbs, then of ladies' stockings. This was just enough to supplement the meagre allowance from his parents who, themselves, were not well off.

Derek later met a girl whose boyfriend was son of Lord Beaverbroook of the Daily Express. He was given a month's trial as a Daily Express Reporter based in Manchester where he spent eighteen months and then returned to London. On his return, he became a reporter for 'Sunday Referee' and was paid three guineas per week retaining fee, plus extra for each story published.

The first home Derek acquired was a mews cottage in London. He left the Sunday Referee for the Sunday Express and then moved reluctantly to the Daily Mirror. He was fired overnight from the Mirror for not being 'waspish' enough about the people of whom he wrote! It was agreed with the Daily Mirror that he would publish a column to say he was resigning from his post to travel around the world and this he did, from June 1938 to June 1939. On his return he moved back to his mews cottage in London.

With World War II looming on the horizon, Derek did not want to get a job as he wanted to write about his travels and, therefore, he could not afford to stay in the cottage in London. This prompted his move to Rose Cottage near Truro in Cornwall. Eventually, it was inevitable that if he did not volunteer he would be signed up anyway and so he enlisted in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. He was despatched to Pendennis Castle at Falmouth where his task was to guard the docks - with no weapons except for one rifle for the whole company! In between patrols, during his breaks, Derek would continue with his writing in his car parked in the dockyard.

Derek became a member of the MI5 organisation which was shortly to evacuate to the country. At that time he left his house in Elm Park Lane and took his few possessions with him to Blenheim Palace.

At long last, his book of his travels in 1938-1939 entitled 'Time was Mine' was published. Unfortunately, within a few days, the entire stock of 'Time was Mine' was destroyed when a bomb fell on the holding warehouse and the publishers refused to reprint the book after the printing works were hit a week or two later.

Derek met Jeannie, who was to become his wife, at the Savoy Hotel, the headquarters for top journalists. Jeannie worked in Public Relations and would introduce guests to the people they wanted to meet. The people Jeannie wanted to meet were often the same people that Derek wanted to meet and it wasn't long before, if they weren't actually together, they would be in the same party. As time passed, Derek began seeing Jeannie more regularly and their relationship blossomed. Derek proposed to Jeannie, they married in the Lady's Chapel of Richmond Parish Church on February 20th and honeymooned in Brighton.

Derek and Jeannie had to leave Cholmondeley House which they were renting in the early days of their marriage as the owner needed it back. During their time at Cholmondeley, Derek edited a book which he called 'Went the Day Well'. This was a collection of stories from different people of different backgrounds about their recollections of someone who was killed during the first two years of the Second World War. The book was published in 1942 and reissued in 1995.

After Cholmondeley, Derek and Jeannie found Thames Bank Cottage in Mortlake which was next door to a public house with the river close by. All the while, MI5 was boss and Derek, although no longer an executive, was an agent in a minor role. Derek would sometimes have a man or woman to stay who had been on a secret mission or defected to Britain.

Derek and Jeannie finally decided that they did not want to be in the rat race of London - the pace of life was too fast. When on holiday in Cornwall they looked for a house and found the perfect place in 'Minack' in the far west of Cornwall. Jeannie left the Savoy after 10 years employment.

After his first visit to London in fourteen years, Derek was reassured that he had made the correct decision in leaving the big city and heading for the quieter pace in Cornwall.

Derek Tangye was an absolutely fascinating man, who met many famous people during his time as a reporter in London, and had many interesting anecdotes of the War years to share with us, his readers.

The Minack Chronicles include:

• A Gull on the Roof
• A Cat in the Window
• A Drake at the Door
• A Donkey in the Meadow
• Lama
• The Way to Minack
• A Cornish Summer
• Cottage on a Cliff
• A Cat Affair
• Sun on the Lintel
• Somewhere a Cat is Waiting (Omnibus)
• The Winding Lane
• When the Wind Blows
• The Ambrose Rock
• A Quiet Year
• The Cherry Tree
• Jeannie
• The Evening Gull
• The World of Minack
• Monty's Leap
• The Story of the Minack Chronicles (Omnibus)
• The Confusion Room
• The World of Forever (posthumous quotations from the Minack Chronicles)

Biography gathered from 'The Way to Minack'.

For more information about Derek Tangye you may wish to visit the Friends of Minack Society website

Contributed by Sonia

(Published 8th Oct 2013)