The Grasshoppers Come

by David Garnett, R.A. Garnett (Illustrator)

". bizarre . tells of the ordeal of an airman stranded alone and injured in a strange desert."

David Garnett (1892 1981) was a British writer and publisher. He was a prominent member of the Bloomsbury Group, and received literary recognition when his novel Lady into Fox was awarded the 1922 James 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.

101 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1931

About the author

David Garnett, known as "Bunny", was an English writer and publisher. A prominent member of the Bloomsbury Group, Garnett received literary recognition when his novel Lady into Fox, an allegorical fantasy, was awarded the 1922 James 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.

He was the son of Richard Garnett. His first wife was the illustrator and author Ray Garnett (née Marshall) with whom he had two sons including Richard Garnett. His second wife was Angelica Bell. His mother was the translator Constance Garnett.

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

All you need to know about flying biplanes in the 1920s, crossing Europe in one, crashing in Asia, and trying to live on locusts. Most entertaining and written in the plain, almost technical English that David Garnett is thankfully remembered for.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can't quite remember where I picked this up, I think the illustrations by his brother (?) caught my eye, think I've a signed copy of Lady into a Fox somewhere too. On the back of this a number of his other books are listed/reviewed 'No Love' is one that sounds of interest. An original plot line of this novella, the three characters, Commander Shap, Lily Beanlands and Wreaks, set off to break the record of a long distance flight only for a crash on the Mongolian Chinese border. The characters feel greatly mismatched, the trip being organised largely by Lily, and through the book's course little snippets are gleaned of their past lives, her deceased husband Alfred, the strained marriage of Wreaks and wife Daphne who has an affair with a schoolmaster.

The second part focuses on Wreaks, injured in the crash, previous near death experiences are mentioned, his scarring and lost eye, the other two leave him to find help, on his own with two sandwiches, and then the locusts/grasshoppers come. The prose feels strangely fresh really, my edition, the second printing from July 1931, there feels an allegorical element with Wreak's reaction to his predicament, and being a novel from so long ago I'm certain I'm missing much of further context, but this was a curious read.