pen-y-bryn press

Swimming with Tigers is a heart-rending novel about two women struggling to find their path and become more than just a muse or lover to the men of the surrealist movement. Set during the run-up to World War 2, it follows the fortunes of these exceptionally gifted women as they navigate the new-found freedoms of bohemian art circles in the 1930s.

It is 1938, and headstrong art student Penelope has left behind her privileged English family to join the surrealists in Paris. In a café, she meets a mysterious, haunted woman who calls herself Suzanne. When Penelope’s artwork is shown at an exhibition, she realises that both she and Suzanne have been betrayed by members of the surrealist group.

Gradually, a friendship develops and together they begin to throw off the subordinate role that the surrealist movement expects of them as women.

The dislocations of war separate Penelope and Suzanne from each other and send them on a desperate chase across France into Spain and finally to Lisbon.

In the darkest of times, will they find a way to save each other?

A story of passion, creativity and courage, Swimming with Tigers is based on real-life women surrealists such as Leonora Carrington and Lee Miller who inspired great art but also wanted to be recognised as artists in their own right.