Christopher Derrick
| Christopher Derrick | |
|---|---|
| Born |
12 June 1921 Hungerford |
| Died | 2 October 2007 (aged 86) |
| Occupation | publisher's reader, reviewer, essayist |
| Nationality | British |
| Period | 20th century |
| Spouse | Katharine Helen Sharratt |
| Children | eight sons and a daughter |
| Relatives | Thomas Derrick (father), Michael Derrick (brother) |
Christopher Hugh Derrick (12 June 1921 – 2 October 2007) was an English author, reviewer, publisher's reader and lecturer. All his works are informed by wide interest in contemporary problems and a lively commitment to Catholic teaching.
Christopher Derrick was born at Hungerford, the son of the artist, illustrator and cartoonist Thomas Derrick and his wife Margaret, née Clausen. He was educated at Douai School 1934-39, and at Magdalen College, Oxford, 1940 and 1945–47, his studies being interrupted by service in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. In 1943 he married Katharine Helen Sharratt, who graduated from Bedford College the same year. They had nine children, eight sons and a daughter. From 1953 to 1965 he was Printing Officer of the University of London, as well as working as a reader for Macmillan. Thereafter he worked independently as a literary adviser to various publishers, as a book reviewer, and as a writer and lecturer. He died on 2 October 2007 at the age of 86. His surviving literary papers have been deposited in the archive at Douai Abbey, Berkshire.
Most interest in Derrick has been in his memories of G. K. Chesterton, who was a friend of his father, and more especially C. S. Lewis, who was Derrick's tutor at Magdalen. He was constantly being asked by Lewis's Catholic admirers - such as the German Neo-Thomist, Josef Pieper, two of whose works Derrick had reviewed - why Lewis himself never became a Catholic. He provided as definitive an answer as possible in his 1981 book C. S. Lewis and the Church of Rome. Another friend was the economist E. F. Schumacher, whose interest in Catholic social teaching he shared.
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