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A MAN who has faced life-changing challenges after
seriously injuring himself in a car crash more than 30 years ago, was
at a book-signing event in Bude recently.
Michael J Darracott, the Cornish author of Proper Cornish Childhood signed copies of his book at Bude library.
Michael, who visited Bude as a child with his parents, also had links with the town in the 1980s as a summer market trader.
He had not intended becoming an author – but a car crash changed his life.
Newlyn-born
Michael said: "In 1976 when I was 20 years old, I was a passenger in a
friend's car, it was foggy that Saturday night at around 11pm, and my
friend pulled out of a junction just outside Longrock, Penzance, into
the path of a car. That car was doing around 90mph, and in an instance
my life was changed for ever. My seatbelt snapped along with five of my
ribs. I was thrown through the windscreen and the car I had been in was
bulldozed over me by the car we had just hit. I came to rest with my
head squeezed up against a granite wall, my chin was bent down towards
my upper chest, both my arms were trapped under the sill of the car
which was now on top of my chest. My right leg had been twisted around
the axle of the car and I could hardly breathe because of the weight of
the car across my chest.
"I was trapped for over
an hour and when cut out was rushed to West Cornwall Hospital, where I
lay for 12 weeks. I was originally told I would never walk again but
the leg got better. But I suffered a hit to the back of my head that
has left me with a rare bit of brain damage. You would not think so to
look at me. I look fine.
"But
a small part of my brain at the back has been dropping slowly out of my
head and making its way towards my brain stem for 33 years now, causing
me balance problems.
"I
have had constant ringing sounds in my ears 24/7 for the last 10 years.
Before this happened I had been to catering college after leaving
Lescudjack School, Penzance. And I became a chef in the world famous
Lobster Pot Hotel, Mousehole. I cooked for many Hollywood stars and pop
artists, and spoke with many. But it all changed in an instant from the
car crash.
"I could no longer work for long in a kitchen because the heat made me feel so ill.
"I
met and married my wife a few months after the crash, and had no idea
for 12 years afterwards what was making me so ill all of the time. By
the time I found out what it was my three wonderful children had all
been born, and I was getting worse."
Michael was assessed disabled 12 years ago, and told by his GP not to do any work.
He got the all-clear to work from home on a computer, so he wrote his book, Proper Cornish Childhood, publishing it himself and the work is beginning to gain recognition.
His book tells a child's eye story of growing up in Mousehole during the 1960s and 1970s.
Experiences
include learning to cook with his mother in the family kitchen, family
Christmas celebrations and the annual turning on of the Mousehole
lights. The Torrey Canyon disaster and its devastating effect
on Cornwall's coastline and wildlife is also given coverage. The
author, as a boy of 10, watched the tanker being bombed to set fire to
the remaining oil.
article copyright WESTERN MORNING NEWS
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I was born and bred in Newlyn back in 1956, I love Newlyn its such a wondeful place. Jelperts ice cream for me the best in the world. I wrote about many aspects of Newlyn life in my book, and growing up in sixties Newlyn and cornwall.
My book is available from my website
www.mikedarracott.com
also from
www.amazon.co.uk
and from
books plus in Penzance
and Trago mills Falmouth and Liskeard to name but a few.
I know quite a lot of Newlyn people and I hope you enjoy my book.