David Garnett

David Garnett (9 March 1892 – 17 February 1981) was a British writer and publisher. As a child, he had a cloak made of rabbit skin and thus received the nickname "Bunny", by which he was known to friends and intimates all his life.vanessa bell

Garnett was born in Brighton, the only child of the writer, critic and publisher Edward Garnett and his wife Constance, a translator of Russian. As a conscientious objector in the First World War, David worked on fruit farms in Suffolk and Sussex with his lover, Duncan Grant .A prominent member of the Bloomsbury Group, Garnett received literary recognition when his novel Lady into Fox, an allegorical fantasy, was awarded the 1922James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. He ran a bookshop near the British Museum with Francis Birrell during the 1920s. He also founded (with Francis Meynell) the Nonesuch Press. He wrote the novel Aspects of Love (1955), on which the later Andrew Lloyd Webber musical was based.His first wife was illustrator Rachel "Ray" Marshall (1891–1940), sister of translator and diarist Frances Partridge. He and Ray, whose woodcuts appear in some of his books, had two sons, one of whom (Richard) went to Beacon Hill School. Ray died relatively young of breast cancer.Garnett was bisexual, as were several members of the artistic and literary Bloomsbury Group, and he had affairs with Francis Birrell and Duncan Grant. He was present at the birth of Grant's daughter, Angelica (by Vanessa Bell, and accepted by her husband Clive Bell), on 25 December 1918, and wrote to a friend shortly afterwards, "I think of marrying it. When she is 20, I shall be 46 – will it be scandalous?". When Angelica(below) was in her early twenties, they did marry (on 8 May 1942), to the horror of her parents.

The Garnetts lived at Hilton Hall, Hilton near St Ives in Cambridgeshire, where David Grant kept a herd of Jersey cows.

They had four daughters: in order, Amaryllis, Henrietta, and twins Nerissa and Frances; eventually the couple separated. Amaryllis Garnett (1943–1973) was an actress who had a small part in Harold Pinter's film adaptation of The Go-Between (1970). She drowned in the Thames, aged 29. 
Henrietta Garnett married Lytton Burgo Partridge, her father's nephew by his first wife Ray, but was left a widow with a newborn infant when she was 18;she oversaw the legacies of both David Garnett and Duncan Grant. Nerissa Garnett (1946–2004) was an artist, ceramicist, and photographer. Fanny (Frances) Garnett moved to France where she became a farmer.

After his separation from Angelica, Garnett moved to France and lived in a pleasant house in the grounds at the Château de Charry,Montcuq (nearCahors).The Château de Charry is a castle, originally 15th century, in the commune of Montcuq in the Lot département of France.The castle was built in three stages. It was initially a keep whose principal masonry was flanked by two polygonal towers. It was encircled by a fortified curtain wall; the remains of this are the third tower, though not connected to the main building, and a rectangular barbican. Cannon positions defended access to the well. An underground passage linked the barbican to one of the towers of the keep.A second period of building, in the 17th century, added the central building to the right of the tower, as well as buildings forming the court.In the 19th century, the main building was joined to the round tower of the ramparts. This keep provided a firing line between Montcuq and the keep at Marcilhac, and guaranteed the defence of the Charry valleyThe castle is privately owned. It has been listed since 1976 as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture.David Garnett, the British writer and publisher and a prominent member of the Bloomsbury Group, moved to France and lived at the Château de Charry after his separation from his wife, Angelica. He died there in 1981. leased to him by the owners, Jo and Angela D'Urville. He continued to write, made friends among the local English community of the locality, and lived there until his death in 1981.Dope Darling (1919) novel, as Leda Burke

• Lady into Fox (1922) novelSylvia Tebrick, the 24-year-old wife of Richard Tebrick, suddenly turns into a fox while they are out walking in the woods. Mr. Tebrick sends away all the servants in an attempt to keep Sylvia's new nature a secret, although Sylvia's childhood nurse returns. While Sylvia initially acts human, insisting on wearing clothing and playing piquet, her behaviour increasingly becomes that characteristic of a vixen, causing the husband a great deal of anguish. Eventually, Mr. Tebrick releases Sylvia into the wild, where she gives birth to five cubs, whom Tebrick names and plays with every day. Despite Tebrick's efforts to protect Sylvia and her cubs, she is ultimately killed by dogs during a hunt; Tebrick, who tried to save Sylvia from the dogs, is badly wounded, but eventually recovers.
• The Sailor's Return (1925) novelThe Sailor's Return is a 1925 British novel by David Garnett. In Victorian England, a black woman "marries" a sailor and faces hostility from the local community in Dorset.