David Stuart Horner (29 July 1900 – 1983) was a crime fiction novelist and the longtime partner of

Osbert Sitwell Sir Francis Osbert Sacheverell Sitwell, 5th Baronet CH CBE (6 December 1892 – 4 May 1969) was an English writer. His elder sister was Edith Sitwell and his younger brother was Sacheverell Sitwell. Like them, he devoted his life to art and l ...

Early life

David Stuart Horner was born on 29 July 1900, the son of John Stuart Horner (b. 1855) and Emily Green, the daughter of Col. James Francis Birch, of the 3rd West India Regiment. He was part of the Horners of

Mells Manor Mells Manor at Mells, Somerset, England, was built in the 16th century for Edward Horner, altered in the 17th century, partially demolished around 1780, and restored by Sir Edwin Lutyens in the 20th century. The house, along with the garden walls ...

. According to the same Horner, "I am directly descended from Little Jack Horner (Henry VIII) who was lampooned in the nursery rhyme--the "Plum" being the property of Mells bought by my ancestor when the monks were kicked out of Glastonbury Abbey—his enemies said that he had stolen the title deeds: Mells, which now belongs to my first cousin Katharine ornerAsquith, is once again in the hands of a Catholic." According to Osbert Sitwell, Horner's future companion, "The Horners are probably one of the few Saxon families still extant. ..I am rather bored with the Normans and consider them nouveaux riches." Horner attended

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

and then

Trinity Hall, Cambridge Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge, colloquially "Tit Hall" ) is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1350, it is th ...

, and obtained a BA degree in History and Modern Languages. According to Sarah Bradford, Sacheverell Sitwell's biographer, "At Cambridge, a male admirer addressed Horner as "Beauteous Adonis": he was pale, willowy and elegant, with a finely drawn profile and blond."

Career

According to John Pearson, the Sitwells' biographer, "David dressed superbly, had an amusing line of gossip about all the best people, which he recounted in an engagingly basso profundo voice, and after leaving Cambridge was soon floating, as unattached, good-looking, upper-class young Englishmen could float in those more gentle, far-off days, through a rarely failing world of dinner-parties, long weekends and holidays abroad. He was the perfect guest, the ideal ornament for any party, charming to women and agreeable to men, better connected and far better read than the usual run of gilded social butterflies, and equally at home in the best society in Paris or in London." Before

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Horner published two books based on his life in France: ''Through French Windows'' (1938) and ''Was It Yesterday?'' (1939). During

he served as a Squadron-Leader in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

. In 1959 David Stuart Horner published a crime novel, ''The Devil's Quill'', inspired by the killing of Horner's elder brother, Maurice Stuart Horner (1893-1943), a murder which remains unsolved today. Maurice Horner is buried at St Andrew Churchyard, Mells.Horner, David, ''The Devil's Quill'', Heinemann (1959)

Adrian Wright Adrian Wright (1 July 1947 – 28 November 2015) was an English-Australian actor known for his roles in the 1970s children's television series ''Freewheelers'' and the Australian serial ''Prisoner'' in which he played male nurse Neil Murray. ...

, the biographer of

L. P. Hartley Leslie Poles Hartley (30 December 1895 – 13 December 1972) was an English novelist and short story writer. Although his first fiction was published in 1924, his best-known works are the '' Eustace and Hilda'' trilogy (1944–1947) and '' Th ...

(Hartley was a good friend of Horner; they met through Sitwell in 1933), said that, despite the downplay of many Sitwells' biographies, Horner was a "man of taste and literary ability."

Personal life

Horner was the longtime companion of Sir

(1892–1969). They met at a London party in 1923, when Horner was an undergraduate at Cambridge. During their relationship, both of them had other affairs, Sitwell with art critic Adrian Stokes and Horner with Vicomte Bernard d'Hendecourt, with whom Horner lived for several years in Paris and from whom he received an inheritance. Horner and Sitwell lived together at Renishaw Hall, but they also had a flat in London, and wintered at Castello di Montegufoni, which was Horner's favorite residence.

Edith Sitwell Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell (7 September 1887 – 9 December 1964) was a British poet and critic and the eldest of the three literary Sitwells. She reacted badly to her eccentric, unloving parents and lived much of her life with her governess ...

, who was living with them, disliked Horner. Somewhere around the 1950s the relationship deteriorated and by the 1960s they were estranged. David Stuart Horner died in 1983; his obituary appeared in ''The Times'' on 7 January 1984. His manuscript collection was donated at the Eton College Library. The largest single collection of Sitwell papers is in the

Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center The Harry Ransom Center, known as the Humanities Research Center until 1983, is an archive, library, and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe ...

at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

at Austin. It includes 951 letters from Osbert Sitwell to David Horner and it has been said that Horner sold them to the University of Texas as a spite gesture for having been denied the inheritance of Montegufoni, the Italian Castle he loved, over Sitwell's death; Osbert Sitwell wrote off Horner from a previous will, leaving his London flat to his male nurse, Frank Magro, and Montegufoni to his nephew.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Horner, David Stuart 1900 births 1983 deaths 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English male writers English male novelists English gay writers English LGBTQ novelists People educated at Eton College 20th-century English LGBTQ people