Kevin Jackson
Escape Artist
The Surreal Life of Leonora Carrington
By Joanna Moorhead
Virago 296pp £20
Leonora Carrington’s inner life was a thing of wonder, but success of a worldly kind came very late to her. Having walked away from her wealthy, philistine Lancashire family when barely out of her teens, she spent most of her eventful life in genteel, and sometimes severe, poverty. Almost no one in her native country knew much about her – at best, she was mentioned as a minor player among the pioneer Surrealists. She only began to exhibit paintings, in her adopted home, Mexico, when she was in her forties.
Slowly, though, she became not simply well known but also well loved there. By the early 21st century, she was regarded as a Mexican national treasure. Even more slowly, her reputation finally began to blossom in the USA and the UK. Not long before she died, in 2011, at the
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
London's East End was long synonymous with poverty and sweatshops, while its West End was associated with glamour and high society. But when it came to the fashion industry, were the differences really so profound?
Sharman Kadish - Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers
Sharman Kadish: Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers - Fashion City: How Jewish Londoners Shaped Global Style; Fashion City: ...
literaryreview.co.uk
In 1982, Donald Rumsfeld presented Saddam Hussein with a pair of golden spurs. Two decades later he was dropping bunker-busting bombs on his palaces.
Where did the US-Iraqi relationship go wrong?
Rory Mccarthy - The Case of the Vanishing Missiles
Rory Mccarthy: The Case of the Vanishing Missiles - The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the United States and the ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Barbara Comyns was a dog breeder, a house painter, a piano restorer, a landlady... And a novelist.
@nclarke14 on the lengths 20th-century women writers had to go to make ends meet:
Norma Clarke - Her Family & Other Animals
Norma Clarke: Her Family & Other Animals - Barbara Comyns: A Savage Innocence by Avril Horner
literaryreview.co.uk