A Vast Horizon

Artists and Lovers, Freedom and War

By: Anna Thomasson

Narrated by: Stephanie Racine

A glorious fusion of history and art, A Vast Horizon tells the story of Pablo Picasso and his free-spirited friends, including Lee Miller and Man Ray, in the tumultuous years around the Second World War.

‘Excellent and revealing . . . at the end we feel their loss as if they had been our friends’ - Antony Penrose, Lee Miller Archives

'At once intimate and expansive . . . a fascinating portrait' - Clare Mulley, author of Agent Zo

Late summer 1937. Europe is inching towards war. In the South of France a group of friends picnic in a secluded clearing. The women have peeled down their dresses to their waists. A couple kiss playfully while the others look on, laughing. The moment is captured in Lee Miller's now-iconic image.

Some of the friends are well known, others less so: the dancer Ady Fidelin, the poet Paul Éluard and his wife Nusch, the Surrealists Man Ray and Roland Penrose. They are spending the summer with fellow artists Dora Maar, Eileen Agar and Pablo Picasso.

In A Vast Horizon biographer Anna Thomasson tells the story of their creativity, friendships and pursuit of freedom set against the tense political backdrop of the 1930s, the Second World War and its aftermath. Tracing their lives through their photographs, artworks, poems and letters, from the heady weeks of creativity, sex and collaboration of that Mediterranean summer through the tumultuous years that followed, it is the story of rebellious lives and the redemptive power of art.

Critic reviews

History in which deep ocean currents flow through individual lives . . . a compelling read (Michael Bird, author of This Is Tomorrow: Twentieth-century Britain and its Artists)

At once intimate and expansive, A Vast Horizon layers real upon surreal to build a fascinating portrait of art, war and life (Clare Mulley, author of Women's Prize shortlisted Agent Zo)

Beginning with a single, tantalizing photograph, Anna Thomasson weaves a fascinating story around nine figures in the Surrealist movement. Beautifully told . . . wonderfully interesting and hugely informative (David Boyd Haycock, author of Brilliant Destiny: The Age of Augustus John)

An enviable lightness of touch . . . This chapter in the history of human and artistic relations has never been better recounted (Andrew Lambirth, co-author of A Look at My Life)

A brilliant and engrossing book. Anna Thomasson prowls around her extraordinary group of artists, poets, and models with the subtle skill of a documentary maker . . . It's a triumph (Miranda Seymour)

Excellent and revealing . . . Thomasson’s clear perception gives us their personalities, affinities and achievements in such a manner that at the end we feel their loss as if they had been our friends (Antony Penrose, Lee Miller Archives)