The Lives of the Surrealists

by Desmond Morris

Thames & Hudson, 272 pp., $39.95

People who do one thing very well deserve accolades. People who do more than one thing very well inspire astonishment. It’s especially boggling if they are famous for one thing and you then discover they are skilled in some other area. The singer Tony Bennett, for example, is also a talented painter. In 2009, he presented the National Portrait Gallery with his portrait of Duke Ellington and told the audience that Ellington had encouraged him to pursue both singing and painting: “Don’t do just one thing.” Bennett followed his advice, and has an art studio overlooking Central Park. When he isn’t making music, he’s painting: “I’m always in a creative zone,” he told me in an interview.