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. That meeting sparked a lifelong enthusiasm for talking to artists that has continued throughout Cork’s distinguished career. This collection of revealing conversations, first recorded for BBC radio, spans the pantheon of contemporary British artists, from Howard Hodgkin, Richard Hamilton, and David Hockney to Anish Kapoor, Grayson Perry, and Rachel Whiteread. 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.