in 1959 he published the acclaimed "britain's art colony by the sea" about the artistic community of cornwall, and particularly based around st. ives. val baker lived in various places in cornwall as his family kept growing. the family life in corwall was to provide the basis for many autobiographical, humorous books. the first of which, "the sea’s in the kitchen", was published in 1962 by phoenix house and was to be his best selling book since the forties. this was soon followed by "the door is always open" in 1963 and eventually by another twenty four.