AYRTON, Michael

(1921-1975)

   UK painter and writer, married to Elisabeth AYRTON until his death. He was much respected as an illustrator, stage designer, painter and sculptor; through much of this work recurred images of the Minotaur and of Daedalus, the maker of the Labyrinth. Although little of this was in evidence in his first book of genre interest, Tittivulus, or The Verbiage Collector (1953), which was a SATIRICAL fantasy, The Testament of Daedalus (1962 chap) presents in prose, verse and illustration the eponymous fabricator's reflections on the problem of flight. The Maze Maker (1967) is a biography of Daedalus in novel form. Some of the FABULATIONS assembled in Fabrications (coll 1972) are of sf interest.