FIRST FRIDAY BOOK CLUB | The Lives of Lee Miller by Antony Penrose

Lee Miller was an exceptionally good photographer as well as being beautiful and charismatic.   Discovered by Conde Nast, she was a Vogue cover girl in1920s New York, before going to Paris where she invents, with Man Ray, the solarisation technique of photography, and develops into a brilliant Surrealist photographer. Lee Miller then changed her life by reinventing herself as a war correspondent, covering such events as the liberation of Dachau, which shocked the world. 

Her son, Antony Penrose, is a British photographer who discovered, after his mother’s death, documented details of a life he had never heard about and a woman who was so different to the difficult mother he knew. He unearthed a rich selection of her finest work, including portraits of her friends Picasso, Braque, Ernst, Eluard, and Miró. He runs Farley House and Gallery in East Sussex, UK which preserves his parents’ art and history.    

Join The Friends for an enjoyable morning of lively discussion around the varied opinions provided by the First Friday Book Club followers.