Award-winning art critic and curator Richard Cork was 18 when he chanced upon Picasso, drew his portrait and talked to him. This meeting sparked a life-long enthusiasm for talking to artists which has continued throughout Cork's distinguished career as an art writer and broadcaster.

A fascinating insight into the lives and work of a remarkable range of contemporary artists

Conducted by Richard Cork, one of the UK’s most distinguished art writers, these intimate and revealing interviews provide a wealth of fascinating insights into the work of leading British artists. They discuss, often very frankly, their lives and art, their working methods and aspirations. The collection features an array of highly engaging and articulate artists, from Frank Auerbach, Anthony Caro, Richard Hamilton, David Hockney and Howard Hodgkin to Cornelia Parker, Tacita Dean, Grayson Perry and Rachel Whiteread. Drawing out Francis Bacon’s impassioned musings on mortality, Tracey Emin’s obsessive methods and subjects, the intensity of Anish Kapoor’s internal journey and Richard Long’s epic explorations of landscape, Cork is a penetrating, insightful and accessible interviewer. These conversations, brought together for the first time, brilliantly affirm his belief that ‘talking to artists is like embarking on voyages of discovery’.