The international success of Silvano Levy's Desmond Morris: 50 Years of Surrealism has prompted this enlarged and updated second edition. Morris's latest thinking as an artist, as well as the most recent examples of his work, are explored in an additional chapter.

Silvano Levy has published extensively on Surrealism and is responsible for learned studies on René Magritte, E.L.T. Mesens and Paul Nougé. Dr Levy's research on The Surrealist Group in England has resulted in the book Conroy Maddox: Surreal Enigmas and his wider interest in the movement led him to edit a book entitled Surrealism: Surrealist Visuality. He has curated national touring exhibitions of the work of Maddox and Morris and is preparing major monographs on Magritte and Maddox, as well as the Catalogue Raisonné of Desmond Morris. Dr Levy is senior lecturer at Keele University, England.

Even before Desmond Morris had startled the world with his outrageous book The Naked Ape, he had been captivating television audiences for some ten years with Zootime, the first programme to adopt the novel approach of showing the natural behaviour of animals. Yet, long before becoming a television personality, Desmond Morris had already gripped public attention as a painter. When his canvases were first shown in public, they managed to arouse public outrage. An exhibition held in 1948 inspired angry letters to the press. Spurred on by a rebellious spirit, he has, since then, been painting unceasingly and now ranks among the foremost exponents of Surrealism in Britain.

This book traces the principal themes in his paintings and discusses their significance within the context of Surrealism, the movement with which Morris has identified for well over half a century.

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