He gathered a wide circle of friends including the artists Augustus John, Nina Hamnett and Rex Whistler.
He illustrated Elizabeth David's Summer Cooking and several of her other titles, sometimes working with John Minton.
His illustrated memoir I Must Say offers a vivid portrayal of London life among artistic and bohemian circles in the 1920s and 30s.
[7] Hilary Spurling records that the central character in Anthony Powell's 1933 novel From a View to a Death is "a pushy young painter, an irrepressible opportunist of colossal nerve and cheek called Arthur Zouch, easily recognizable to friends as Adrian Daintrey."
The character is invited to the Passengers' country house to paint family portraits, and in return he seduces the young women of the house until the father, furious, sends him out to hunt on a dangerous horse, and Zouch falls, breaking his neck.