The Owls' House. Book 1 of the Penhale Trilogy

📗 Garstin (1887-1930) was a poet and best-selling novelist, and the eldest son of Newlyn School painter Norman Garstin. Although said to be untameable as a child, he was head boy of his school due to his prowess in rugby union and swimming. As a young man he travelled widely, working as a bronco buster in Montana, USA and a lumberjack in Canada, and also visiting China, Japan, Hawaii and Morocco. On his return, having no qualifications to hold down a job, his father sent him to South Africa and from 1912 he ran a cattle ranch in Bechuanaland and acted as a bush ranger to the Tati Concessions. At the outbreak of WWI he returned to Britain and in October 1914 joined the King Edward's Light Horse as a private, leaving for France in April 1915 having been promoted to lance corporal. He was involved in the Battle of Loos and on the Italian Front, and in 1916 was posted to Dublin as an Intelligence Officer during the rebellion there. As a writer he is best known for his Penhale trilogy set in 18th century Cornwall, and for his poetry and many contributions to Punch. He also wrote two books based on his wartime experiences, The Mudlarks (1918), with a sequel The Mud Larks Again appearing the following year. Garstin died in mysterious circumstances after a boating accident in the Salcombe estuary - the boat capsized and his body was never found despite the fact he was a strong swimmer and the other two occupants of the boat survived. The Owls' House is Book 1 of the Penhale trilogy, first published in 1923.