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Leonora Carrington (1917-present) Find!
Perhaps Lancashire's most exciting find yet! 
Leonora Carrington (photographed on the right with E.L.T. Mesens, Max Ernst, and Paul Élouard, 1937) was born in Westwood House in Clayton Green (just a few miles from Chorley Library); later the family moved to Crookhey Hall near Lancaster. Her father was a very wealthy industrialist and her mother was a free thinking Irish Catholic, the family were thoroughly upper class and Carrington found this life style to be very restrictive on her creative and eccentric character. She was expelled from various convent schools, on one occasion for exposing herself to a nun, before later going to study art in Florence and London.
At the age of 19 she met the famous Surrealist artist Max Ernst in London; he was to be a huge influence on her life. They left for Paris together and Carrington became fully involved in the flourishing Surrealist movement there. She mixed with the likes of Picasso, Salvador Dali, and Joan Miro; the Surrealists became her adopted family and under their influence she really found her voice. All this, however, was brought to an abrupt end with the outbreak of World War II and like so many artists of the time she fled across the Atlantic to New York and then Mexico where she settled.
Today if Carrington is remembered at all in this country it is mainly for her paintings, but she was also a keen writer. She had short stories published in Surrealist volumes by Andre Breton and was encouraged greatly by Ernst, who always considered her writing to be superior to her painting. Her most famous work is The Hearing Trumpet, a hilariously strange and wonderful account of an elderly lady being sent to a care home. It has been described as a Surrealist masterpiece; Luis Bunuel (the famous film director) has said "Reading The Hearing Trumpet liberates us from the miserable reality of our days." I think the influence of Lancashire on Carrington's writing and art has been largely overlooked; she spent her formative childhood years in the county and her interest in witchcraft, catholic symbolism, and the northern landscape can all be associated with her Lancashire upbringing. More specifically, the symbol of a daunting overbearing house is a reoccurring theme in her work and it seems is explicitly linked to her memories of both Westwood House and Crookhey Hall.
Today Carrington lives and works in Chicago, she has received very little attention in this country but worldwide her importance is constantly growing. She is undoubtedly Lancashire's greatest Surrealist and a fantastic literary find.
7 October 2009 from Stephen Miller
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Hi Stephen
Congratulation, this is a wonderful find, I agree. It would great to read The Hearing Trumpet which sounds quite unique. Do you think you will be able to track down a copy? Cheers, Priscilla
Hi Priscilla,
I've nearly finished reading 'The Hearing Trumpet' and it's brilliant...just one of those finds that's completely unexpected. I'll be talking about Carrington at our final event as she has made into our top 5. She certainly lead a colourful life!
There are three copies of the book in the county catalogue so there shouldn't be a problem getting a copy.
Stephen
Hi Stephen. Nice article. But she lives actually in Mexico
http://blogs.clarin.com/decantorodado/2009/4/7/leonora-carrington-casi-siglo/