(The
above photograph used with permission: From the Desmond
Bagley Collection in the Department of Special Collections,
Boston University.)
Desmond
Bagley was born in England on the 29th October 1923 at
Kendal in Cumbria, then known as Westmoreland, of John and
Hannah Bagley. The gap between him and his older brother
Jack was ten years, effectively putting him in a separate
generation. His father was a Lancashire coal miner, gentle
and a lover of good music; a marked contrast with his
mother who was stern and strong-willed, slow to sympathise.
It was in this mix of parental temperaments that the
author's life-long speech impediment began to develop.
Exactly why or when he started stammering is not recorded.
He spent his early years in the town, educated in strict
schools where any natural curiosity was routinely stifled.
At this time most seats of learning relied heavily on
corporal punishment to enforce their often blinkered views,
but the young man was strong enough to maintain his free
spirit throughout. Only one teacher was remembered with any
fondness later on, because he'd had that precious ability
of being able kindle the flame of interest in an eager
mind. The subject was mathematics, one the author was to
enjoy and excel at subsequently.
At about the age of eleven the author's father was retired
prematurely from the mines due to ill-health, and the
family moved to Blackpool to run a theatrical boarding
house. By the trick of moving across county boundaries
Bagley found himself with an unusually long summer vacation
- the first six weeks from Cumbria, and after the move, a
handsome extension courtesy of Lancashire who had a much
later term start date.. During this 'Glorious Summer', as
the author later described it, the young man found great
enjoyment reading away the days on Blackpool's famous
beach, having first become aquainted with the town's much
larger public library!
Leaving school with no formal qualifications the author
started work as a Printer's Devil (an apprentice or errand
boy) at the age of 14. He didn't much like the work though
and tried his hand at several other occupations. Just
before World War II he was working servicing the
vending-machines and one-arm bandits along Blackpool's
'Golden Mile' and 'Pleasure Beach'. When hostilities
finally broke out the factory was turned over to making
machine-gun turrets and parts for Spitfires. Having been
initially passed over for military service due to his
stammer (perhaps on the grounds that a man who couldn't
give orders clearly, was thought not to be able to
understand them either) the author became foreman and in a
job that could not spare him when the rules for
conscription were later modified to drag in more men.
At home family tensions were steadily increasing throughout
this period. Bagley's mother was never happy with her son's
(from her viewpoint) idleness, and when his brother's newly
born child was found to be autistic, the sister-in-law
blamed the Bagley genes for the disability, and in
particular her anger was vented very hurtfully towards the
young man with his stammer.
Life together, all under one roof became intolerable and at
the end of the war Desmond Bagley, then 22, decided to
emigrate to South Africa. Unlike the majority who made the
exodus he chose to travel overland, and when he left
England it was snowing heavily. It must have been an
awesome contrast to find himself, not long after, crossing
the inferno of the Sahara Desert - unlike anything he
could've encountered before. By 1947 he'd passed through
Kampala and Uganda but in the climates of these countries,
where the mosquito rules, he contracted Malaria. For his
health he moved along pretty smartly and arrived in Kenya
in 1948 and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1949. Finally he
arrived at his destination of South Africa by 1950-1.
Throughout the journey he worked his passage but never
settled in one job for long, and often felt his speech
impediment lost him opportunities along the way, preventing
him from being directly employed by any one company.
Luckily his freelance work was always very successful. At
one point he had tried to alleviate the impediment by
attending a residential course designed specifically for
the purpose and funded by his then employer - a local
hospital. Unfortunately they could do nothing much for him
but later, after a move back to Durban, a friend who was a
hypnotist taught Bagley techniques for self-relaxation, and
these were useful in helping ease the problem and gaining
confidence.
In this part of the world gold and asbestos mines figured
large in the economies and the author worked for a time in
both industries. A landmark perhaps was that while in Natal
Bagley became interested in journalism, adding another
string to his already ample bow. As well as writing he also
fitted in working as a nightclub photographer. Once in
Durban (1950-51) he wrote a series of radio scripts about
various science subjects for the South African Broadcasting
Corporation. After his final move on to Johannesburg he
worked as a freelance reporter for several of the
well-known newspapers - the Sunday Times, the Star and the
Rand Daily Mail. During this time he was also popular as a
reviewer of books, films, theatre, records and concerts and
often wrote for trade journals. Between 1956 and 1962 his
work included feature articles with a mainly technological
slant.
It was in 1957 that he wrote his first short story to be
published in the UK. Called "My Old Man's Trumpet" it was
published in the Argosy magazine for January. At this time
he was giving his occupation as an engineer.
In 1959
while at a party in Johannesburg he met Joan Brown, the
director of a leading local bookshop, and the couple
married a year later. (See
Joan Bagley).
In
1962 he wrote the first of his best-selling blockbuster
novels - The Golden Keel - perhaps not the first he had
tried but the first to be published. He'd taken a long time
planning it and his other work had been shelved to
accommodate the efforts.
The rest, as they say, is history.
In 1965, after a short and abortive sojourn to Italy, he
moved back to England and lived in Totnes, Devon until
1976; after which he moved on to Guernsey in the Channel
Islands, a splendid place and one the author obviously
loved. He wrote an affectionate article about his life
there called 'A Little Peace Of Britain' published in a
1980 edition of 'In Britain' magazine.
His recreational activities were many and varied and he
listed them as variously: sailing, travelling, reading,
mathematics, computer programming, and military history. In
Africa he kept a dog and on Guernsey a Siamese cat.
Desmond Bagley died on the 12th April 1983 in Southampton
hospital, eight days after having a stroke.
Such a sudden and early end to this active and prolific
author's life seems a very unfair blow - not just for his
family and friends but a whole world of loyal readers built
up over two decades of thrilling writing. Few people who
start out with such hindrances make such a mark on the
world.