Denys Val Baker (1917-1984) maintained a prodigious literary output throughout his life. Des Hannigan wrote of him in The Peninsula Voice at the time of his death: “What made Val Baker unique was his dedication to the writer’s trade and his marvellous and unselfish belief that there should be a ‘community of writers’ in the same sense that there is a community of artists; that the written word should be as much a part of Cornwall’s culture as the visual arts and that both should be extended”.

Val Baker wrote works of fiction, short stories and many autobiographical books. These often documented his eventful and colourful life of the years in which he lived in St Ives. Titles include:

            The Sea’s in the Kitchen (1962)

            To Sea with Sanu (1967)

            Life up the Creek (1971)

            A Family at Sea (1981)

His well-known work Britain’s Art Colony by the Sea (1959), an important survey of the painters in St Ices, remains a much sought-after book and gives a fascinating insight into all those involved in the burgeoning modern world of art after the war. This book was reissued in 2000.

Val Baker was the founder and editor of the influential literary magazine The Cornish Review. The first set of volumes ran from Spring 1949 until 1952, when financial problems forced its closure. Contributions to the first issue included: R Morton Nance, A L Rowse and Sven Berlin.

In the spring of 1966 the magazine was relaunched, and Denys Val Baker was able to maintain regular publication until the winter of 1974 when sadly the Literature Panel of the South Western Arts Association decided to recommend discontinuing future grants because they felt that the Review’s claim to be a literary magazine ‘was a very tenuous one’.