David Garnett

David Garnett was a writer, and he was part of the original household here at Charleston. In 1916, during the First World War, he moved here with the artists Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell.

David Garnett was a writer and he was part of the original household here at Charleston. In 1916, during the First World War, he moved here with the artists Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell. Grant and Bell were lovers at this time, as were Grant and Garnett. They lived together at Charleston alongside Bell’s two young sons – Julian and Quentin, a handful of domestic staff, and Grant’s pet dog, Henry.

Garnett was better known to the wider Bloomsbury group and his close friends as ‘Bunny’. Apparently, as a child he had a rabbit skin cloak, and the nickname stuck throughout his life.

In 1922, he won the ‘James Tait Black Memorial Prize’ for his novel, ‘Lady into Fox’ but he is best remembered for his later works. His most famous novel, ‘Aspects of Love’ (1955), was turned into a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber in 1989.

When Bell and Grant’s daughter, Angelica, was born at Charleston on Christmas Day in 1918, Garnett wrote about it in a letter to a friend. ‘I think of marrying it. When she is 20, I shall be 46 – will it be scandalous?’. When Angelica was in her early 20’s she began seeing Garnett, and following the death of his first wife, the illustrator ‘Ray’ Marshall, the pair were married in 1942. Although both Grant and Bell disapproved of the marriage and chose not to attend the wedding, Angelica remained in the dark about her husband’s past relationship with her biological father.

David and Angelica Garnett had four daughters together before separating in 1967. Their children were regular visitors to Charleston, and Bell – who adored her grandchildren – always encouraged them into the studio where she would insist on painting them.

A sculpture of Garnett by the artist Stephen Tomlin remains in the garden to this day.