'Talking to artists is like embarking on voyages of discovery...' 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.

This collection of revealing conversations brings together for the first time interviews first recorded for BBC radio and as live events which feature the pantheon of contemporary British artists, from Richard Hamilton and David Hockney to Grayson Perry and Tacita Dean. Whether drawing out Francis Bacon's musings on the afterlife, or the story behind Tracy Emin's My Bed, Cork is an insightful and sympathetic interviewer.