"A novel that has as its main character an Old Lady who is liberated from the boredom of her secure life at an eccentric home for elderly ladies when given a hearing trumpet — and whose wish to go to the North pole before she dies comes true in the most unlikely fashion — has to be good. Even though she is better known as one of the best painters of Surrealism Leonora Carrington’s novels and short stories have had a strong influence on feminist and fantastic fiction. Constantly entertaining and unpredictable The Hearing Trumpet is infused with warmth and rebellion in equal measures."

"It’s sort of the first–and I think still the best–about the media circus, the kind of the vulture culture of descending onto a place where’s child’s life is in danger, the “boy in the well” kind of thing, and how the press is either hoping that the kid dies or is heroically saved so they have a good story. They’re supposedly covering what they think will be a heartwarming story of bravery, but it’s really the darkest cynical tale about popular media culture. It was too dark for people to deal with at the time. Billy Wilder had such a heart of darkness in him, in such a funny way."