David Garnett

Born in Brighton in 1892 into a deeply literary family, he grew up surrounded by books, writers, and ideas. His father was the critic and publisher Edward Garnett, and his mother, Constance Garnett, became one of the most influential translators of Russian literature into English.

He became part of the Bloomsbury circle and built a reputation as a novelist, publisher, and man of letters. His best-known book, Lady into Fox (1922), won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and remains famous for its odd, haunting premise: a woman suddenly transformed into a fox. Other works, including A Man in the Zoo, showed the same taste for satire, fantasy, and social observation.

He continued writing for decades and also worked as an editor and memoirist, leaving behind a vivid record of the literary world he knew. He died in 1981, but his work still stands out for being clever, curious, and quietly daring.