Michael Ayrton

Michael Ayrton (20 February 1921 – 16 November 1975)[3] was a British painter, printmaker, sculptor, critic, broadcaster and novelist.

His sculptures, illustrations, poems and stories often focused on the subjects of flight, myths, mirrors and mazes.

An exhibition, 'Word and Image' (National Book League 1971), explored Lewis's and Ayrton's literary and artistic connections.

He travelled to Spain and attempted to enlist on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War, but was rejected for being under-age.

[8] He also wrote and illustrated a satirical novel, Tittivulus or The Verbiage Collector (Max Reinhardt, 1953; designed by Will Carter), an account of the career of a minor devil whose original remit was to collect slovenly performances of the Divine Office in monasteries, but who develops, as the centuries pass, into a collector of all kinds of verbiage, and finally, in the modern age, mounts a fascistic revolution in Hell.