Derek Flint Clifford

Background

Clifford was born on September 1, 1915, in Gillingham, England.

Education

Clifford received his undergraduate degree in 1937 from King's College, Cambridge. He completed a master’s degree in 1945.

Career

Soon after graduating, Clifford enlisted in the Royal West Kent Regiment, serving mostly as a guard manning an antiaircraft gun on the White Cliffs of Dover; eventually becoming a captain, he spent his final year of the war in India, where he became interested in the flora of the region.

By 1945, Clifford had already published the poetry collection Mad Pelynt and the Bullet in 1939, and he soon completed his novel The Perracotts in 1947. The postwar years saw Clifford buying a nursery, where he became a specialist in pelargoniums and began writing books on horticulture and gardening, including Pelargoniums. including the Popular Geranium and A History of Garden Design. He later ran the Caledonian Nursery and won prizes for his plants, was the founding chair of the Geranium Society and developed a new interest in raising mushrooms.

Clifford, who had painted as a hobby for many years, was also an avid collector of paintings, sculptures, figurines, jewelry, and a variety of antiques, becoming an expert on many related subjects. His later books consequently reflect this interest and include such publications as Art and Understanding: Towards a Humanist Aesthetic, Collecting English Watercolors, and Chinese Carved Lacquer. He was also the author of To Catch a Fox and The Affair of the Forest.

Achievements

• Clifford is best known as a writer. His best-known books are a poetry collection, Mad Pelynt and the Bullet, and a novel, The Perracotts.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Chinese Carved Lacquer 1993
  • Pelargoniums 1958

Personality

Clifford developed an interest in raising mushrooms. He was also an avid collector of paintings, sculptures, figurines, jewelry, and a variety of antiques.

Interests

• biology, art

References

• Contemporary Authors Volume 221
  2004