Townsend Warner, Sylvia: - Sylvia Townsend Warner (1893-1978) was a poet, novelist, journalist and musicologist. She grew up in Devonshire and was home-schooled for her rebellious behaviour. After World War II disrupted her musical studies, she moved to London to work in a munitions factory. With her partner Valentine Ackland, whom she lived with from 1930 until her death, Warner was active in the Communist Party in the fight against fascism and served in the Red Cross during the Spanish Civil War. She wrote her acclaimed debut, Lolly Willowes, in 1926, followed by six more novels and hundreds of stories and political articles.