Episode 23 - Dr Kate Laity - Leonora Carrington and The Hearing Trumpet

In this episode I talk about the life and works of the artist Leonora Carrington with Dr Kate Laity.

 

Leonora Carrington is often considered part of the surrealist movement of the early 20th Century but her artwork is full of purposeful, esoteric symbology and otherworldly creatures, and often related to deeply personal events from her very eventful life. She also had a deep interest in mythology and the occult and this would inform her creative output throughout her career.

 

Alongside her art she was also an accomplished author with her most famous work perhaps being The Hearing Trumpet , a novel centered on nonagenarian Marian Leatherby, who is gifted the eponymous trumpet, and her adventures at the very unusual old peoples homes she is banished to by her family. Like her artwork, the book is full of mysticism and mystery.

 

Kate, my guest is an award winning author, scholar & critic, serving both as History Witch for Witches & Pagans and as Associate Professor of English at the College of Saint Rose. She recently gave a talk about Leonora Carrington at the fantastic Treadwells bookshop in London, which was the inspiration for this episode. 

 

You can find out more about Kate and her work at her website https://kalaity.com/.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

Episode Image: 'Self Portrait' by Leonora Carrington

Some Other Sphere theme music is from https://www.purple-planet.com/.

'Hubbub' by Chris Martin/Geoff Harvey