John Banting was born in Chelsea and educated at the Emanuel School. Initially associated with the ‘Vortist’s’ and later with the Bloomsbury Group, he moved into Surrealism in 1930 during his stay in Paris. First exhibition of his surrealist works took place in 1931 at the Wertheim Gallery. He contributed to the International Exhibition of Surrealism in 1936 and in 1938, to the Exposition Internationale du Surrealisme in Paris. He wrote and illustrated his book “A Blue Book of Conversation” in 1946. Contributed an original woodcut in two colours to the triple (and last) number of the ‘London Bulletin in 1940.