THE HYENA: the extraordinary – & fictional - story of an extraordinary artist called Deborah Parkinson & her adventures in the 20th century.

THE HYENA is the extraordinary – and fictional - story of an extraordinary artist called Deborah Parkinson and her adventures in the 20th century. She meets everyone from Frida Kahlo to Leon Trotsky, experiences Paris in the 1930s, New York in the 60s, Plymouth in the Blitz and Mexico City in the 1940s.

It’s a story about art, women, and identity. Why are women always labelled as muses while men get all the credit? How do you survive on talent alone? And what if someone was the greatest artist you’d never heard of?

Deborah’s travels are a parallel universe history of the 20th century. She’s a surrealist who grew up in pre-WW2 Plymouth where her dad ran a pub, then ran away to Paris where she met Dali and Picasso and Frida Kahlo, and fell in love with a mysterious artist called Marius.

When war came, she followed Max Ernst and Leonora Carrington to Mexico, where she hung out with Kahlo again, and met Leon Trotsky. Implicated in Trotsky’s murder, she fled back to Plymouth in the Blitz.

In her later years, she settles down with her young family, resolves some issues in New York, and nearly dies in an old people’s home. Nearly.

Copies of David's book will be available to buy at the Festival and there'll be a dedicated book signing afterwards.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR - DAVID QUANTICK

David Quantick is an author (ALL MY COLORS, Titan Books), a screenwriter (BOOK OF LOVE, SPIDER ISLAND) a radio writer (WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE AUSTEN? as well as a formerly frequent guest on LOOSE ENDS and occasionally FRONT ROW) and am Emmy-winning television writer (VEEP, THE THICK OF IT). THE HYENA is his new novel and the one that means the most to him.

David wanted to write a book about a surrealist because he love surrealism. He wanted to write about a female surrealist because he love female surrealists – Leonora Carrington (whose hyenas he stole), Remedios Varo, Dorothea Tanning - but those women came from well-off families and they had support networks. They could dance naked on tables in Paris and get away with it. David wanted a character who didn’t dance on tables – in fact, had to clean those tables to earn a crust. How does a poor female artist survive in a world of rich men?

David wanted Deborah Parkinson to be the greatest artist you’ve never heard of.

Description supplied by the event organiser.