My father, John Branfield, who has died aged 95, was an English teacher and novelist.
His early books, including Flag in the Map (1960), Look the Other Way (1963) and In the Country (1966), were for adults, but he then began to write for teenagers, finding a wider audience through novels such as Nancekuke (1973) and The Fox in Winter (1980), which was runner-up for the Carnegie Medal for Writing.
In later life he switched to writing books about the Newlyn school of painters in Cornwall, where he lived, including Tony Giles, Painter of Man-Made Cornwall (2022).
John was born in Burrow Bridge, Somerset, to Alan, a tax office administrator, and Bessie Storey, a teacher. He attended Huish’s grammar School in Taunton until during his mid-teens his family moved to Whitby in North Yorkshire, where he went to a local grammar school. He then won a scholarship to study English at Queens’ College, Cambridge, and after graduating taught English in schools in Toulouse and Nantes.
It was in France that he met Kathleen Peplow (known as Pep), a nurse. They married in 1955 and then lived in Northwood, Middlesex, where John took up a teaching position at a local prep school. In 1961 they moved to the north coast of Cornwall, where John taught at Camborne County grammar school for girls until 1980.
John and Pep had always been interested in art, and over the years they built up an impressive collection of Cornish paintings and ceramics, from the Newlyn school to the postwar St Ives modernists. They co-curated several exhibitions and loaned much of their art to local galleries.
In addition to Cornish art, John had an interest in Cornish history and culture. He also enjoyed walking, cinema and reading the Guardian.
Pep died in 2002, after which John moved to a small cottage and devoted himself to his new rose garden and baking his own bread. He also oversaw the planting of 200 trees on land he had bought nearby in order to preserve it from building speculation.
He is survived by his four children, Frances, Stephen, Peter and me, two grandchildren and a sister, Jean.
