About

David Garner was born in 1946 in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, although his family soon moved back to its more natural environs, Upminster in Essex. Now subsumed into East London, in the 1950s Upminster still displayed many aspects of its recent rural past and provided an idyllic childhood environment.

Not a natural student, David left school aged fifteen with no academic qualifications, and none since. After a brief spell as an office boy in London’s Mayfair, he astounded his employer by leaving to become an assistant gamekeeper on the edge of the New Forest. Moving to an estate in Norfolk, he was able to continue his interest in the natural world and which endures to this day.

Leaving gamekeeping, the next twenty years encompassed a career in sales and marketing, marriage, bringing up two children and several house moves around East Anglia, as well as much sport. Then followed a succession of self-employed businesses which provided various uncertain livings but no conspicuous riches. His working life drew to a close employed as an analyst and business plan writer for a county constabulary before enjoying several years as a freelance writer and copy writer for a London media company.

Writing has been one of David’s enduring skills. It has been utilised to write advertising, reports, business plans, articles and much else besides. In retirement he began writing for pleasure - a full-length novel which, like the curate’s egg, was only good in parts. It is currently being re-written as a much shorter story. In 2014 he wrote ‘Last Man in Paradise’, an autobiographical account of his time as a gamekeeper, plus many other aspects of shooting and wildlife conservation. His other ‘country’ publications include ‘Casting at the Moon’ (2020), an autobiographical book on fishing, and his latest book, ‘Wild!’ (2022), a light-hearted account of his misadventures in wildlife gardening.

‘Dancing with the Devil’ (2019), marked a return to writing fiction but in a previously untried form, a collection of short stories. This is now his favoured form and a new collection is expected to be published in 2023.

In retirement David lives with his wife, Christine, in the Norfolk Brecks and, when not writing, spends his time cultivating a wildlife garden, walking, fishing, beating and shooting.