well as designing gardens, Hancock also wrote a book titled When I Make a Garden, which was reprinted in 1950 and updated to include images of the Derry and Toms roof gardens as well as later work. He also exhibited gardens at the Ideal Home Exhibition in 1936, 1937 and 1938. Each of the Ideal Homes gardens was required to conform to a theme. In 1936 the theme was Gardens and Music. The garden featured 1,200 plants that were brought over from the USA. The 1937 theme was Gardens of the Lovers. The theme for the 1938 show was Novelists and their Gardens for which the designers had to take as inspiration their favourite living author. Ralph chose as his inspiration Rafael Sabatini. Sabatini was famous for his tales of high adventure such as Scaramouche, Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk, all of which became successful motion pictures. Captain Blood was produced in 1935 and gave a young Errol Flynn his first ever Hollywood starring role. The show catalogue for that year hints at some form of collaboration between the author and the architect. Although of Italian birth Sabatini was living in Hereford. Ralph's garden tribute to Sabatini featured a half-timbered cottage and also his trademark herringbone brickwork. The planting consisted of rhododendrons, heathers and aquatic plants near a winding brook. In 1939 Ralph won a silver cup at Chelsea for a Formal Mediterranean Garden. Gardens and landscapes were put on hold with the advent of the Second World War. Ralph, Denys and Bramley all joined the military, while Muriel drove ambulances. Ralph, who had previously served in the First World War, was re-activated. Second Lieutenant Denys Hancock joined the Royal Tank Regiment, and Captain Bramley Hancock served as an artillery forward observation officer. Sheila, who was 11 when war was declared, was sent to the neutral U.S. to stay with friends. Denys Hancock would later die in November 1941 during Operation Crusader in North Africa. Back in England, Derry and Toms was damaged during an air raid. However, after the war ended it was rebuilt. Although the garden was restored to its pre-war splendour neither Ralph nor Muriel fully recovered after the death of their youngest son, Denys. The latter years After World War II, Hancock began to work with his son, Bramley. Together they constructed hundreds of private gardens throughout the United Kingdom. Ralph Hancock also submitted elaborate