We are very sad to report that Derek passed away after a battle with illness earlier in 2020. He was always very enthusiastic about his books and we are proud to keep his biography here and his books for sale on our site. Any commission raised from the sale of his books will be donated to the St Elizabeths Hospice who cared for Derek in his final days.
Derek Firman or Del, (his stage name) was born and brought up in Ipswich and after forty years of living away, he returned to his home-town in 2014.
Derek has always been a bit of a wordsmith, right from his days at Grammar School where his ‘off beat’ articles were a regular feature in the annual school magazines.
After a short time at the Ipswich At School, Derek then spent the next ten years working in the photography side of the Advertising industry. Upon returning to East Anglia, now happily married, his life took many different roads, one of which was writing comedy sketches for the BBC, sadly none were accepted. But you can’t keep a good man down and thirty years ago he returned to his first love of music and entertainment {see his book, “The Summer of 68”} He trod the boards in the time honoured way, pubs, village halls, hotels/ clubs and Holiday Villages. He is especially proud of his time with the ‘Jake & Elwood’ Blues Brothers theatre show. He now entertains mainly in local residential homes. As a solo entertainer Derek had to write his own promotional material, and was often asked to write ‘potted biogs’ for his fellow entertainers. In 2003 he sat down and wrote a comedy & music show, sub titled, “Vintage Variety”; with a cast of eight appearing at theatres throughout East Anglia including two sell out performances at the Stowmarket Regal.
2006 saw him sidelined with a serious illness but as Derek says, “the silver lining was that it brought me back to reading and serious writing again.”
Derek is also a lifelong collector of all things old and interesting, ranging from the late Victorian era through to the 1970’s, with the 1940s being of special interest.
“What did ‘e say?” and “The Summer of 68” are Derek’s second and third books, the first being a biography of comedy ventriloquist, Brian Chamberlain, one of the cast in his theatre show.
