Francis Birrell Explained

Francis Frederick Locker Birrell (17 February 1889  - 2 January 1935) was an English writer and bookseller.

Birrell was the son of Augustine Birrell and Eleanor Tennyson (born Locker-Lampson). It was the second marriage for each of his parents. He was educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge. During and after his time at Cambridge, he became associated with the Bloomsbury Group, and was a friend of Lytton Strachey and the novelist David Garnett.^{[1] [2] [3]} Later in life, he grew closer to Raymond Mortimer, who cared for him after a brain tumour left him disabled in the year before his death.^[4]

D. H. Lawrence rejected Birrell for his homosexuality.^[5]

See also

• List of Bloomsbury Group people

Notes

1. Web site: University of Sussex Library Special Collections: Francis Birrell.
2. MR. FRANCIS BIRRELL: Conversationalist, Critic, and Bookseller. The Manchester Guardian, 5 Jan 1935: page 9.
3. Mr. Francis Birrell Conversationalist And Writer (Obituaries). The Times Friday, Jan 04, 1935; pg. 14; Issue 46953; col D
4. Book: Palmer. Alan. Who's Who in Bloomsbury. 1987. St. Martin's Press. New York. 19–20.
5. Frances Spalding, Duncan Grant: A Biography (1997) p.169