Desmond Morris is one of the last surviving Surrealists. His first solo exhibition was held in 1948 and in 1950 he shared his first London show with Joan Miro. He has since completed over 2,500 Surrealist paintings, and eight books have been published about his work. He has also written many books, one of which - The Naked Ape - ranks among the top 100 bestsellers of all time, with over 12 million copies sold.
'Fizzingly written and sumptuously illustrated ... What makes this biographical dictionary of British painters and sculptors so readable is that Morris is writing about people he once knew very well indeed ... this beautifully illustrated book - each artist's bio is accompanied by two or three paintings - is a reminder of the extraordinary work of such Britons as Carrington and Agar, whose reputations as surrealists of the first order, able to stand comparison with Duchamp, de Chirico and the rest, have been soaring in recent years' - Sunday Times