British painter and photographer Eileen Agar was one of the few women to be included in London's 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition, next to Picasso and Max Ernst.

She became an overnight sensation and honorary member of the British Surrealist group.

Excited by the surrealists' desire to paint "what goes on inside our heads", but sceptical about some of their methods and more extreme beliefs, Agar was a "reluctant surrealist":

'One day I was an artist exploring personal combinations of form and content, and the next I was calmly informed I was a surrealist!'

Born in Buenos Aires in 1899, Agar had moved to London in 1911 accompanied by a cow and an orchestra, because her rich and fashionable mother believed that fresh milk and good music were essential to her well-being.

Listen to Episode 1 of An Alternative History of Art: Eileen Agar here