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