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NICHOLAS TEMPERLEY WATSON DARKE |
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Nick Darke Books |
Nicholas Temperley Watson Darke was born at St Eval, near Padstow, on 29th August 1948. He lived most of his life in Porthcothan, where his family have lived for four generations after moving there from Padstow. Nick was educated at St Merryn Primary School and then Truro Cathedral School where he was expelled for getting drunk on sports day. He then attended Newquay Grammar School. He learned to surf and ran the first disco in Cornwall from the cellar bar of the Atlantic Hotel. Nick trained as an actor at the Rose Bruford College in Sidcup, Kent. He learned his craft at The Victoria Theatre, Stoke on Trent and went on to write over 25 stage plays which have been performed both within Cornwall and nationally Many of his plays reflect Cornish society and culture such as the tin mining, countryside, fishermen and the quirky nature of country living. During the later part of his career he worked regularly with the Cornish theatre company Kneehigh Theatre. Nick moved back home to Porthcothan in 1990. He married the painter Jane Spurway in 1993 and is the father of film-maker Henry Darke and stepfather of Jim Darke, a marine scientist. Nick was made a Bard of the Cornish Gorsedd in 1996 taking the Bardic name Scryfer Gwaryow meaning 'Writer of Plays'. While recovering from a stroke that he suffered in January 2001, Nick was diagnosed with terminal cancer and died at the age of on 10th June 2005. A unique beach funeral ceremony was followed by burial in St Eval churchyard. His son Henry and wife Jane Darke continued his legacy in film. The Art of Catching Lobsters, written and directed by Jane Darke, is a moving account of her husband's death and the grieving process. |
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