This year marks three quarters of a century since model-turned-photographer Lee Miller – the subject of a newly released film Lee starring Kate Winslet – and her husband, surrealist curator and painter Roland Penrose, purchased Farleys House in East Sussex as their country abode.

It was here, tucked away in the Chiddingly hamlet of Muddles Green, that they played host to some of the biggest art personalities of the 20th century and set about creating a home dedicated to the surrealist movement.

Inside the 18th century farmhouse, the couple’s paintings, photography and collectables from their travels sit side-by-side with work by art luminaries, such as Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Joan Miró, Man Ray, André Breton and Henry Moore.

A tile painted by Picasso sits above the range oven, the bright yellow painted dining room – inspired by the colour of Farmer’s Weekly – is dominated by a mural by Roland, featuring a depiction of the Long Man of Wilmington, the chalk giant on the Downs, and in the pastel pink living room there are the remnants of Lee’s multiple extraordinary careers – a model in her native New York, photographer in Paris and Second World War correspondent.

‘In all her different worlds, she moved with freedom. In all her different roles, she was her bold self,’ writes Lee and Roland’s son, Antony, in The Lives of Lee Miller.

Antony wrote the book after discovering a catalogue of his mother’s photographs and a manuscript, documenting her experiences of war, in the loft of Farley’s House shortly after she died of pancreatic cancer in 1977.

‘The pages were all jumbled up, but I started reading in the middle of one and it was this incredible piece of writing, describing up close and personal an infantry assault on a heavily defended fortress and watching guys she had been joking with just an hour earlier being cut down by machine gun fire,’ he explains. ‘I had no idea it was her, but then we started to piece bits together and my dad found a shortened version printed in Vogue. He’d read her published pieces before, but this was so raw – he had no idea of the danger she had exposed herself to.’

The loft haul, which became the first Lee Miller Archive, contained over 60,000 photographs, endless pages of manuscripts, letters, military orders, maps and notes.

Sifting through it all to write The Lives of Lee Miller was a cathartic experience for Antony, whose relationship with his mother was conflicted.

‘My mum suffered dreadfully from post-traumatic stress disorder from her experiences of war but at that time nobody understood what that was and so there was no resolution. It’s unsurprising she became alcohol dependent and a depressive,’ he says. ‘The first 20 years of my life with her were very tough. She was never violent but she was good with words, which could be incisive and cruel. So that moment with that manuscript, and the journey that followed, have been life changing.’

A motion picture based on Antony’s book, which was first published in 1985, starring Sussex-based actress Kate Winslet as Lee, hit cinemas on 13 September.

‘We’ve been incredibly fortunate to be very involved in the project, which has been 10 years in the making,’ he says. ‘When you see the movie and if you know Lee's photographs, you'll notice that so many of the scenes are exactly like the photographs. Kate [who was also executive producer on the film] is just brilliant. She had to learn how to use a Rolleiflex, the camera that my mother liked to use, and it's a difficult camera to use but very quickly, she was using it like she’d been doing so for years.’

While the film will give viewers an insight into Lee’s career as a war correspondent, a visit to Farley’s House offers a glimpse of what followed: family life in rural Sussex.

Lee seemed to throw herself into all that the good life encompassed, from gardening to making butter and slaughtering pigs, but she also continued to travel, both on her own article assignments and with Roland, who together with Peter Watson, Herbert Read, Peter Gregory, Geoffrey Grigson and ELT Mesens, founded the Institute of Contemporary Art in 1946.

While his mother and father travelled, Antony remained at Farleys House and was looked after by his nanny, Patsy, and those who worked on the farm who, he says, became his extended family.

‘Patsy brought me up, she was my de facto mum,’ he says. ‘During the week it was just me and Patsy and the guys on the farm and our great big sloppy old Labrador, Heather, and then at the weekend, cars would start arriving from London with my parents and a bunch of people they would host at the farm.’

What Antony didn’t realise at the time was that these people were some of the leading artists of the 20th century.

‘As a kid it meant nothing to me, they were just friends of my parents. Some of them spoke English. Some of them didn't. Some of them were more entertaining than others, some I got on with better than others,’ says Antony, who regales stories of his childhood friendship with Picasso in the children’s book, The Boy Who Bit Picasso.

It wasn’t until Antony was 14 and had been with his parents to visit Picasso at the artist’s home in Nice for Easter, that he grasped their significance.

‘I went back to school, and in French class I was asked to talk about what I did for the holidays,’ he remembers. “I mentioned we’d been to France to stay with Picasso and there was a sharp intake of breath. That was the moment I suddenly realised that, perhaps, none of my other chums had quite the same privilege.’

In his early 20s, somewhat influenced by his parent’s love of travel, Antony left Farleys in a Land Rover together with a friend from the village to see how far they could get. They ended up spending three years driving across the world.

‘That Land Rover is, to this very day, on display in the Lee Miller Gallery, looking like it's just about ready to go again,’ laughs Antony who, knowing the intricacies of a working farm, was commissioned to take photos of farms he visited abroad for Farmers Weekly.

He was also joined by his then girlfriend, a Canadian girl named Suzanna, and while in New Zealand, they married, returning to England in 1974 and moving into a cottage on the Farleys Farm estate.

‘This year marks the 50th anniversary since I returned and I’ve been here ever since,’ Antony admits.

Sadly Suzanna, with whom Antony had three children – Ami, Eliza and Josh – died of cancer in 1992 but Antony did find love again, with Roz, who he’s been married to for almost 30 years.

Farleys House & Gallery, which has been open to the public since 2000, remains a family business with Antony and his eldest daughter, Amy Bouhassane, directors in managing preserving, licensing and supporting the legacies of Lee Miller and Roland Penrose.

‘I think what we do is really important, artistically, historically and for the empowerment of women,’ Anthony says. ‘Every now and then I meet a woman who attributes starting her career or changing her life to the inspiration of Lee Miller – perhaps they’ve

become a photographer, dumped an abusive relationship, or just gone and done something because she did. I find that deeply rewarding.’

Farleys House & Gallery is open Thursday, Fridays and Sundays until October 31. A special 75th Anniversary Edition of 'The Home of the Surrealists' by Antony Penrose, RRP £30, is available to buy at the gallery and online at leemiller.co.uk