English shire contracted VIPs like Miro or Magritte (10)
I believe the answer is:
surrealist
'miro or magritte' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'english shire contracted vips' is the wordplay.
'english shire' becomes 'surrey' (I've seen this in another clue).
'contracted' means to remove the last letter (to contract is to shorten).
'vips' becomes 'alist' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'surrey' with its final letter taken off is 'surre'.
'surre'+'alist'='SURREALIST'
'like' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for surrealist that I've seen before include "Magritte perhaps" , "Breton, say" , "Dali or Magritte, for example" , "Avant-garde artist" .)