Richard Garnett spent his working life in publishing and has written children’s fiction. He has translated about a million words – though not from Russian. A son of David Garnett, Constance’s only child, he was twenty-three when his grandmother died, so his account of her life is not only lively and well researched, it is also personal and affectionate. It uses a great deal of untouched primary source material, including Constance’s splendid letters, which throw light not only on Constance but also on her contemporaries.