Born: 24 July 1911
Died: 16 December 1973
Father: William Denham Verschoyle
Mother: Iole Hylla MacDonnell
Married: Anne Scott-James, 4 August 1939, London
Married: Evelyn ???
Married: Hon. Mary Raines Gavrelle Cunliffe., 24 December 1947, London
Children:
Brigid Jacqueline Gavrelle, b. 5 November 1948
Married: Jacqueline Margaret Mary Forte, 16 May 1952
Married: Moyra Frances Meredith Slater, 7 June 1956
Children:
Anthony Turlough Meredith, b. 13 June 1957
Education:
Arnold House Preparatory School, Wales.
Malvern College
Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Oxford
Career:
1931 Published a volume of poems.
1936 Edited The English Novelists, a survey which was published in
1936.
1932-1939 Literary Editor, The Spectator
1940-1945 Flew in the R.A.F., rising to the rank of Wing Commander
1947-1950 First secretary of British Embassy in Rome. Reputedly acted for MI6
during this time.
1952-1956 Formed the publishing firm Derek Verschoyle Limited,
subsequently acquired by Andre Deutsch.
1960-1966 Managing Director of Growers Publications; managing editor of The
Grower.
Other information:
[This information comes from Gens van der Scuylen: 600 years of the Verschuijl and Verschoyle family by Virginia Mason (2001):]
While at Arnold House Prep School in North Wales he was taught by Evelyn Waugh, who later drew upon his experiences at the school in the writing of Decline and Fall and used Derek as the model for Peter Beste-Chetwynd. Hartley Moorhouse writes: 'In 1967 Verschoyle himself gave a radio talk in which he recounted being taught to play the organ by Waugh, a singularly pointless exercise since Waugh was quite unfamiliar with the instrument.'
Employed Waugh as a regular contributor during his literary editorship of The Spectator.
Diana Athill of publishers Andre Deutsch, in her recently-published memoirs, alludes briefly to Derek, whose offices in 14 Carlisle Street, Soho were purchased by Andre Deutsch in 1956: "Derek Verschoyle was a raffish figure, vaguely well-connected and vaguely literary, about whom I had first heard from my father who had encountered him as an agreeably picturesque feature of The Spectator. Verschoyle was its literary editor for a while. His room looked out over the mews behind that periodical's offices in Gower Street, and he, lolling with his feet up on his desk, used to take pot shots at the local cats out of his window with a .22 which he kept on the desk for the purpose. He must have been able to raise a fair amount of money in order to set up his own publishing firm (its assets included the freehold of the house, which was very well placed) but it didn't take him long to get through it. We gained only two really valuable authors from him - Roy Fuller, whose novels and poetry added lustre to our list for a long time, and Ludwig Bemelmans, whose 'Madeline' books for children did very well for us ... Verschoyle was the kind of English Gentleman Andre seemed fated to meet, but although undeclared liabilities kept leaking out of the crannies for a long time, and the bills which came in with despairing regularity from his tailor and his wine merchant used to make out eyes pop, he did us no harm and much good. Settled into his house, we ceased being promising and became pros."