With Humdrumming’s republication of the works of Denys Val Baker, beginning with The Sea’s in the Kitchen, we’re having a Denys Val Baker Week here on Dial Publishing, so stay tuned for lots of information about the man, the writer, and the works.

Denys is rarely heard of nowadays, but if you ever come across one of his books, acquire, read and enjoy (see the sidebar). They are rib-ticklingly funny and an immensely good read.

Denys Val Baker (1917 - 1984), owner and editor of The Cornish Review, was the author of twenty hilarious autobiographies. Titles of these included, The Sea’s in the Kitchen and The Petrified Mariner, which give you a flavour of them. He wrote in the 1950s through the 70s, and was a full-time professional author, by which I mean he was always broke.

Nevertheless, he managed to buy an enormous old tramp steamer, MVS Sanu, and, with no sailing experience whatever, took his large brood of wild children and long-suffering wife, Jess, on incredibly dangerous voyages. He was on the rocks more times than Jack Daniels.

Denys lived in Penzance, Land’s End and St. Ives in Cornwall, and was usually seeking some means of financing his next outrageous project. He was an adventurer in the grand English tradition, though always amusingly shambolic.

You once could find his books on the shelves of most libraries, where they were among the most popular titles for borrowing. These days they’re not so easy to come by, although Amazon has a good listing of second-hand copies, mostly at premium prices. Denys would have been amazed.

His character never allowed a moment to pass without doing something absolutely beyond the pale. A catalogue of his adventures would take 20 books to compile, which is probably why he wrote 20 autobiographies.

When I lived in Penzance we occupied a house across the road from his, though he had been dead for a decade. I noticed there was no blue plaque on his house, which is a pity, though everyone remembered him in the library, where he did most of his research. His son, Martin, still runs a print business in the town, and his wildest daughter, Demelza, lives there too.

Denys was one of the old school of writers. He spent a lot of time in London, mostly in the literary pubs around Soho where he hung out with the likes of Dylan Thomas and other luminaries of the scribbling fraternity.

But his heart was in Cornwall, as was most of his written output. He will be best remembered for his twenty or so “funny books”. Gerald Durrell is probably the nearest comparison.

Let’s hope he will not be totally forgotten, especially in the county that inspired his best work.