Dancing with the Devil and other stories

About David Garner

David Garner was born in 1946 in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, although his parents soon moved back to their natural environs, Upminster in Essex. Now subsumed into East London, in the 1950s it still displayed numerous aspects of its rural past and provided an idyllic childhood environment. Schooling was a different matter. By no means 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, he astounded his employers by leaving to become an assistant gamekeeper on the edge of the New Forest. Here a propensity for speaking out earned dismissal after a year and he moved to an estate in Norfolk where he learnt a good deal about the natural world and made a friendship that endures still. He then joined the Parachute Regiment but, finding soldiering too permanent and somewhat stultifying, left the Regular Army although going on to complete lengthy Territorial Army service. 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 football and wildfowling. But this was as nothing compared to the following twenty years. These saw a succession of business start-ups which provided various uncertain livings but no conspicuous riches. His working life drew to a close employed as a business analyst and business plan writer for a county constabulary before enjoying several years as a freelance writer and then a copy writer for a London media company. Writing has been one of David's few enduring skills.It has been utilised for advertising, reports, business plans, articles and much else besides. In retirement he wrote a full-length novel which, like the curate's egg, was good in parts but which remains firmly unpublished. In 2014 he wrote 'Last Man in Paradise', an autobiographical account of his time spent gamekeeping and wildfowling plus other aspects of shooting and wildlife conservation. 'Dancing with the Devil' marks a return to writing fiction but in a previously untried form, a collection of short stories. The five stories are linked by the theme of desire, its manifestations and consequences. It is published both as a paperback and e-book. 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 and shooting.